Mischief Managed
by Darkglare
Summary: What happens when Lily Evans feels her life is ruined by the Marauders as a joke?
1. Chapter 1

*** Chapter 1 Revised ***

Reported by the trolls who are Literate Union members as too explicit for Fan Fiction dot net

This is still posted under my same pen name over at the Writers Coffee House (it'll show up on first page of a Google) I'll get around to updating my chapters there, but chapter 1 is complete as originally written.

*** end of revision note ***

Yet another fan fic that popped up in the middle of my 2011 NaNo -

Mischief Managed, a tale of the Marauders and their short attention spans leading to Lily throwing herself at Severus Snape. M for theme and sexual situations. Two versions posted to tone down the FF version.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

LE/SS

**Mischief Managed**

_Summer, 1977, prior to 7th__year for Marauders_

Lily could not believe how fast a week went by. She thought she would not like spending a week of holiday with Potter who was made head boy, and had been ready to leave within minutes of arriving when she found out Potter's parents were not here. No parents were here. That had been so silly. This week had been bloody brilliant. Lily could not believe how great shagging was. Why hadn't anyone told her? She would have started years ago, if someone did.

The last two weeks of August were going to go so slow without James. Lily could not wait to get back to Hogwarts to shag him more.

She wanted to get in a couple more shags with James this morning before they left this rented house. Well, not really a house, more like a sprawling seaside mansion. Potter's parents were pretty swell to pay for this place for the Gryffindor guys to holiday in along with all the girls that were here.

Nudging James, all he did was grunt, "Later, Evans. I may be the greatest, but I'm still mortal."

She frowned at him. She did tell James he was the greatest shag ever, but it had been in the heat of the moment after he had her pinned and refused to do anything until she said it. Toerag.

Pettigrew was in the kitchen again this morning. James had brought a house elf, but Lily had noticed Pettigrew in the kitchen a lot. It was not very nice of the other fellows to leave him here, especially when Peter had a couple nice girls that were interested in him.

Lupin had the same girlfriend all week, Black had maybe a dozen coming and going, and Peter had two that were probably still asleep. He got up every morning and made them breakfast. He was really sweet to them. Lily had noticed because she was also an early riser.

"Evans … I mean, Lily, here's a glass of nice, fresh pumpkin juice for you."

"Thank you."

After he made sure that Evans started drinking it, Peter turned back to getting the breakfast tray ready for his bedroom. He had two young ladies waiting for their morning pumpkin juice too. Then he'd spend the day in bed again. This had been a bloody brilliant plan. They had to do this next summer too, except longer than a couple weeks. Heck, it should go on year round. It was a lot easier than having to talk, listen and flirt with girls. Just slip them some of this potion and they couldn't get enough of the Wormtail or any other wizard's wand. Padfoot had found it in an old book about getting witches to crave a wizard's seed. The language was so outdated, it made it sound like farming.

It had been Peter's idea for Prongs to invite Evans. He had been moping around for the first couple days when all these babes were here and ripe for the picking. Padfoot paid him no mind since he was too busy. Hell, they thought Sirius was going to keel over due to dehydration since he had so many witches to service. At least he was gentleman enough to leave Moony's girl and the ones Peter picked alone. Every time they tried to crawl over to Padfoot, he steered them back to them.

Peter hoped this got Evans out of Prongs' system. She was still a bitch even when she got wand shoved into her regular, he thought to himself as he wiped the counter clean before she complained. Peter should have let her walk out that first day. James had to make her believe he was on a family vacation, and since he was head boy and she was head girl, that there was some tradition that they spend time together before school started. The idiot fell for it, but then wanted to leave when she found out Mr. and Mrs. Potter were not here. If Peter had not plied her with some cool pumpkin juice since it was such a hot day, she would have apparated home, and Prongs would have melted into a miserable puddle.

Since then, Evans confirmed she had too much energy and attitude. James could shag her rotten till he passed out, then she was out of the bedroom, nagging anyone who was about.

Lily licked her lips after that great glass of pumpkin juice. Why did it taste so good here? It was much better than Hogwarts' pumpkin juice. Was there better pumpkin juice that wealthy wizards like Potter were able to get?

Her eyes drifted over Pettigrew. Was his thing anything like James'? Would he show it to her if she asked? Or should she just follow him back to his room to see it? James would be asleep for hours yet. Was it getting hot in here? Lily wondered as she looked at the stove. Was the house elf baking something in the oven?

Peter watched Lily start peering at the stove and then open the oven. Now what? If Prongs wanted to keep her, he better chain her to the bedpost so she couldn't wander off. Evans was an out of control menace.

He then got worried as Evans turned her gaze to him and it lowered to the front of his trousers. Oh Merlin, she was licking her lips. He shouldn't have let her distract him. Till now, he had given her the pumpkin juice and left. Though he could create a beautiful memory to reminisce upon every time she opened her mouth in the future of him shoving his prick in it till she gagged … and then Prongs just may kill him.

Finding the stove and oven turned off, Lily's eyes were drawn to Pettigrew, who was near the stove. There was nothing on his breakfast tray that could get cold. He had time to satisfy her curiosity. James' was absolutely brilliant but maybe Pettigrew had something just as good. Something had to make up for his lack of looks. He did have two girls in his room after all, she thought as she leaned closer.

Keeping his laughter contained was hard. Peter saw Evans was drooling. He bet he could have her on her knees and crawling to him. Yup, this could be a historic morning except Evans would remember it and may talk about it too. If only Prongs mentioned that he was finished with her. Damn it.

"Can't keep the girls waiting, Evans," he said, grabbing the tray and getting the table between them.

Peter passed Remus in the hall while carrying his breakfast tray.

"Hey, don't forget we have to be packed and ready to floo by noon."

"Today?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, it's Monday already."

"Oh uh … all right." Peter turned around and went back to the kitchen to pour out all the pumpkin juice he mixed up this morning. He gave Evans a brief thought. She'd be all right since she lived with muggles. This potion only attracted witches to wizards.

When Lily got home, her father was still at work, and she briefly told her mother she had a nice time. She was distracted by something. In fact, Lily was downright agitated so she decided to take a walk.

Her feet led her to downtown, and she had a vague idea of maybe stopping at the pharmacy to say 'hi' to Tunie at the lunch counter. She did not know why she headed this way, but it had done nothing to cure the feeling in her lower belly that she needed something. Something pretty bad.

Was that Severus going into the market down the street? It could be him. Lily raced across the street to follow him. A car's brakes squealed as it came to an abrupt stop, and the driver leaned on his horn. She ignored it and went inside.

Lily glanced down the first three aisles then spotted him in the fourth with a basket over his arm, reaching for something off a shelf. She rushed over and said, "Hi, Sev."

"Hello," was his response. Severus looked at Lily. Even if she was in the store at the same time as him, he was surprised she said anything to him rather than hiding behind a shelf or putting her nose and chin so high in the air she was in danger of hurting her neck. Lily was empty-handed. He suspected Mrs. Evans was close by with a trolley.

When Severus continued on his way, Lily asked, "What are you doing?"

"Getting food."

"How about after?"

"I need to stop at the butcher too, then home."

Snatching the list out of his hand, Lily suggested, "I can help."

"Please give that back."

"What kind of beans?" Lily asked. This list was no good. It just had one word for each item.

"I know which kind."

"Did your mum write some of the words with her other hand?" Lily inquired. It looked like two people wrote it, but neither was Sev's handwriting.

"No," he muttered. Severus knew that he never claimed his father was illiterate. Why would Lily adopt some pureblood philosophy and think muggles could not write?

"Hey, aren't you going to get beans?" Lily asked, pointing the other way towards produce.

"No, in the can, Lily."

"Oh, I see. You already got a head of cabbage and bread. Um, what's after canned beans?"

"Why are you doing this, Lily?" he asked. She doesn't speak to him for a year, and now she's playing around in the grocery store and swiping his list.

"To help you get done faster, Sev."

He raised a questioning eyebrow at her. Was Lily hinting that he was in a hurry to get home for some reason? Severus decided not to reply. He'd probably sound foolish if he suggested Lily wanted his company this afternoon.

Lily was happy it was a short list and followed Severus to the checkout.

Severus knew Lily was behind him as he put the items on the counter to have them added up, but he did not know why she kept bumping up against him. There was no line behind them. She had all the room she needed. What if Mrs. Evans saw her acting this way? Bad enough the woman tallying his order gave them a disapproving look.

He insisted he carry the bag when Lily tried to take it. Was that what she was after? To throw his food into the street? Normally, he did not think Lily would do something like that, but she was a Gryffindor.

When she followed Severus out of the store, he asked, "You're coming with me?"

"Yes, do you really need to stop at the butcher's?"

"Yes."

Severus looked around the street. Was Lily luring him out of the store for someone else to attack him?

"Let's get a move on then," Lily urged when Severus moved too slow out on the sidewalk.

At the butcher shop, Severus held the door open for Lily, then entered himself. The butcher recognized her and asked, "What can I get for you today, Miss Evans?"

"Oh nothing. I'm with Severus."

It was in an entirely different tone that he asked, "What do you want?"

"Ham, pork or beef. Not more than a pound."

"Bone?"

"If that's what you have."

Lily made a face at the mess the butcher wrapped up. It was a hunk of bone with a chunk of meat attached. Who'd want that? The corner of her lip raised as she realized Severus did not mean weigh a pound, but a pound was all the money he had to spend.

She took a moment to look at her former friend. He did not look much different than he had previous summers. His clothes did not fit and had been worn for years before they were given to him. Severus was getting taller, but his father was a broad, big fellow. Even though he was seventeen, and could do whatever magic he liked, Severus did not bother with fixing his clothes or taking any sort of care with his appearance.

Despite Lily's thoughts about how unattractive Severus was, she leaned close to him and gave the front of his trousers a definite squeeze.

"What …?" was out of Severus' mouth before he thought. Lily did not grab there by accident, but why did she do that? He doubted she'd tell him the truth.

"Let's go," Lily suggested, letting her hand slide along his hip.

He frowned at her, put the beef bone in his bag, and warily exited the shop.

Lily stayed close to him, and put her hand on the small of his back. "Where to now, Sev?"

"I have to bring this bag home."

"So we're going to Spinner's End next?"

"I am."

"Is anyone home at your house?"

"Why do you ask, Lily?"

"Just curious."

"My mother should be home," he warned her. If she told other Gryffindors where he lived, would they try to hurt his mother? Once he was in the house, it would be difficult for any of them to do anything. There were protections on their home.

"What are you doing afterwards?"

"Nothing."

"Did you want to go somewhere?"

Hoping he would get an idea of what Lily intended, Severus asked, "Where?"

"I don't know. Maybe by the river, where the trees are?"

Severus knew the place. It's where they used to sit and talk when they were younger. Lily's skin was so fair that she needed to stay in the shade or she'd burn. He used to clean up the rubbish before they met there, and had not been there in years, even though it was close. It could be covered with trash, the trees could have died, and after a few days of no rain, the river was sluggish and smelly.

Did she choose there because she forgave him, or it was hidden enough for someone to perform magic out of view? Though why would someone cast something at him out of sight of others? Gryffindors loved an audience.

As Lily's hand crept around a bit to fondle his bum, Severus had to ask, "What are you doing?"

"I've missed you, Sev."

"I've missed you too, Lily." Was Lily playing some sort of joke on him? His eyes darted around to try to see who was watching them. What was he supposed to say? Lily had not talked to him in over a year. Walking and squirming as she got too aggressive was not easy. What was Lily trying to do? Severus was intrigued, yet it seemed wrong.

On the way to Spinner's End, Severus' mind was on Lily's hand and watching his surroundings as he asked the typical questions such as how Lily and her family were, and mentioned he noticed Petunia was working in the pharmacy. It did register that Lily did not politely respond with the same sort of questions.

Rather than paying attention to Spinner's End and the fact that this was the first time she was this close to Severus' house, Lily was in a hurry for Sev to get rid of that bag and come with her.

Severus used the kitchen door, as he usually did, and lowly asked, "Could you wait here please? I'll leave the door open."

Lily stayed at the door, rather than entering the house, watching as Severus put the bread in the box on the counter and put the rest of the groceries away. He went into the next room to give his mother the change, and to let her know that Evans had run into him at the store and requested he go with her.

When Severus returned to the kitchen, he noticed that Lily was fidgeting at the door like she needed to use the loo. It would be impolite to ask if she did, but if she did not ask to use the one here, there was none at the river, other than the river itself.

Joining Lily to leave, she grabbed him through his trousers again, and did not let go after she squeezed it while moaning, "Oh Sev."

"Stop that," he replied, pushing at her hand. To be contrary, she tightened her grip on it, pressing her body against his and for some strange reason, gave a large exhalation of breath onto his chin while looking into his eyes.

So many conflicting thoughts confused Severus. It seemed dreamlike since it was Lily, and she was doing things to him that she never did before, with the added nightmare factor of his mother being in the next room, or if they moved out into the bare dirt garden, his neighbors could look down on this.

He could not deny it felt good and somewhat thrilling. Better than the one time he experimented to see what all the fuss was about and concluded it was a waste of time. Severus would not mind trying it again with Lily, if this was not some trick. He felt a moment of panic, thinking about that. Bad enough his trousers and underpants were removed in front of half the school, but was this the next stage of their plan to humiliate him?

Lily was surprised that Severus firmly grabbed her arm and twisted it. She grunted out, "Huh?"

"What's wrong with you?"

"What do you mean, Sev?"

"Did someone give you something? To eat, drink, a gift, or even something as trivial as a quill?"

"No, what's wrong with you?"

The same question was going through his own mind. Was he being a complete dunderhead? His doubts were valid. Lily was acting odd. "I'm not understanding what is going on, Lily. What are you doing?"

"What do you think? Now let go of my arm so we can get going."

He did as she asked, but something was off. Lily did not reprimand him for manhandling her.

They walked along the fetid, sluggish river with Lily's hand growing bolder, when Severus did not hold onto it with his own. After cautiously looking around their old hang out, he took out his wand and used some detection charms before cleaning it up a bit.

Lily did not wait for Severus and sat down, wishing he'd hurry up. Why was Severus so picky?

Severus was laying down some wards when he noticed how Lily was sprawled on the ground with her skirt pushed up so her white cotton knickers were visible. Even if she forgot she was wearing a skirt, how could she not feel how uncomfortable the ground was against the back of her legs? When she reached down, he thought she was going to modestly pull the hem down to where it belonged, but instead Lily *** revision begins here ***

He could not look away, and Lily noticed his eyes as she tried to soothe the ache her body was feeling. "Hurry, Sev. I need you."

Even though Severus was lowering himself to his knees, he had to ask, "Are you sure, Lily?"

…

Severus chose to kiss Lily on the mouth. When he imagined such things, kissing was a higher priority. Avoiding it seemed impersonal.

…

Snogging Lily Evans. He was snogging Lily Evans. Severus had not studied or practiced it before since it looked rather disgusting when he observed others doing it. Lily's tongue kept entering his mouth. Was that all right? Was she thinking about his crooked teeth or how they weren't white? His mind was so much on whether he was snogging correctly that Lily's hand squeezing and stroking him was secondary.

Sev was still being too slow. His hands were on either side of her face rather than moving all over her body. Lily broke their kiss with a pleased hum to keep Sev in the mood, and purposely looked down to give him a hint as to what she wanted.

…

"Ow," Severus complained. Despite the crazy tales wizards told of what their members could do, he knew his did not bend like a pretzel, or whatever way Lily was trying to twist it.

"Then you take it out, Sev."

He felt his cheeks heat up with a blush. Although Lily had felt it, seeing it was something different. Was she going to be disgusted? Laugh at him? She was making a face … oh no.

"What … why's this look different?"

"Different than what?" Severus asked tightly. When did Lily see one? Did girls pass around photos like the male students at Hogwarts did with pictures of lewd women?

Lily leaned closer, studying it then experimentally moving part. "Does this hurt?"

"No," he replied, afraid to say something more. This was somewhat brilliant, and he did not want to ruin it. Lily was temperamental. This was not how he imagined things happening at all. Lily was the only thing that seemed right. In his mind there would be candlelight, flowers, music, inside on a lovely bed, Lily wearing something … romantic, rather than a wrinkled skirt, socks and shoes. He supposed Lily had changed her mind on the romance and marriage she used to tell him about.

Smirking as Severus responded, Lily saw Sev's was bigger than Potter's, and Sev was making such nice little sighs and moans now.

As Lily tried to bodily get on top of him, Severus jerked back, exclaiming, "What are you trying to do?"

"Calm down, Sev." How could she have forgotten how skittish Severus could be about touching? Oddly, it turned her on. This could be the first time Sev ever did this.

Firstly, why … how … no, why did Lily want to shag him? And secondly, of all the spells Severus knew and could forget, the contraceptive charm had to be the one. Not that he paid it much mind because the only time he'd thought he'd be casting it in the near future was at people who should not have children. He admitted, "I've forgotten the charm, Lily."

What charm? Obviously this was his first time. "Don't worry about it, Sev. Did you want to be on top of me?"

Either Lily cast it earlier or used one of those other ones he vaguely knew that lasted longer. She planned on tracking him down and having sex? Of course she did. Suddenly seeing him at the store would not have gotten her all hot and drive her crazy with desire. That was some ludicrous delusion that he never even attributed to his imaginary alter ego who said and did everything right, the Half-Blood Prince.

Flustered, he repeated what she said, "On top? Wouldn't that be uncomfortable? I don't want to accidentally hurt you." He was not sure what was rumor and what was fact regarding this. His thinking was if it hurt, why would women want to do this? Now that he thought about it, Severus cast a cushioning charm.

"Come on."

…

He stopped breathing … nothing had ever felt this good before. Lily was smiling so hopefully he was doing this correctly. Shit. What was … maybe don't move. Severus overheard taunting about being too quick. How fast was too fast?

…

Not sure what was supposed to happen next, and since Lily was on top of him, Severus resumed snogging, now that her mouth was no longer clamped to his now sore shoulder.

Lily was somewhat embarrassed that she bit Sev. He had been bloody brilliant. Could he do that every time, or was that just beginner's luck? He was certainly getting the hang of snogging. Lily liked how gentle he was about it, rather than trying to shove his tongue into her mouth to try to feel her tonsils. There was also the caressing hand on her cheek, and now Sev had his other hand flat in the middle of her back with his fingers lightly moving.

She broke the kiss and asked, "Did it hurt when I bit you?"

"I don't care, Lily. I've missed you so much."

Somewhere in the back of Lily's mind, there was a slight inkling of how wrong this was. However, she preferred to think about doing this again.

Severus had been aware of Lily writhing against him, not responding to what he said. It did not seem possible that she was still angry with him. Was she expecting him to forget it and not mention how terrible the past year had been for him? He'd like to discuss it though. Severus never wanted something like that to happen again.

"You can snog more later, here … let me get more comfortable and I'll help get you back in the mood."

…

Part of him wished it was dark.

Eventually, Severus got his wish because it did get dark after hours of Lily insisting he continue shagging her. She still did not want to have a normal conversation with him, and kept her answers short and added an annoyed tone when he inquired if she was getting tired or sore.

…

He had also asked a number of times what time she needed to be home. Severus did not need to cast a charm because the church bells were audible each hour, and he had been keeping track since it got dark around nine.

By midnight, even Lily had to admit that Severus was not going to get hard again, no matter what she tried.

…

*** end of revision ***

Why did he have to be so talkative?

He walked her home and used the light under a street lamp to sort Lily out as best he could, and then strolled slowly home deep in thought.

In the morning, Lily woke but it was like she had two brains conflicting with each other. The one that started giving her instructions for the day while she was still half asleep suggested that Lily could go meet Severus by the river again. Then her thinking mind started shouting in her head, "Oh my God!" until it was heard and drowned out the other voice.

What had she done? Lily could remember everything. Severus was right to be cautious and ask questions, and she lied. Well no, not exactly, she thought it was unimportant at the time to mention that she had spent a week with Potter, Black, Pettigrew and Lupin. It was none of his business. It wasn't, but obviously the Gryffindors thought it frightfully funny to … ruin her life. This was not a harmless prank! She slept with that toerag for days and thought she liked it. They even shagged on the toerag's broom. Bloody Bollocksy Bastard!

If that wasn't horrifying enough, they sent her home still on that stuff so she tracked down the nearest wizard and dragged him off to shag by his … thing. It was worse than those books her mum read. Lily was like one of the 'other women' who were so desperate they'd do anything to steal a man. The kindest word for her behavior yesterday would be slut. Her face got red just thinking about how she sprawled on the ground and flung her knickers off before she truly got started. What if someone saw her in the grocer's or at the butcher's or on the street … there were so many places in town she could have been seen lewdly groping Sev.

Then there was Severus himself. Sure, if she was so angry at him and never talking to him again, she could try to ignore yesterday even happened, but the things he said to her … how he missed her, he never wanted to argue with her again, and then if that wasn't bad enough, Severus was terribly confused about what was going on. He might have even proposed marriage based on Lily's claim from years ago that nice girls did not do this sort of thing before they were married and then only with their husbands. Why couldn't Severus have just had sex and stayed quiet? Now, Lily did not know what to tell him.

She'd have to say something. Lie? About what though? That it meant nothing? She only did it for a bit of fun? Or tell the truth? That Potter and his friends lied and took advantage of her and were probably still laughing over it? It would certainly make Severus angry to be the butt of their jokes even over the summer holiday. Would he get angry at her too? Lily was pretty good at charms, but did not get into the childish squabbles with the dueling, hexing and jinxing. Would Sev even dare cast something on her? If he did, she'd certainly never talk to him again. Ever.

Lily was feeling vengeful against the Marauders, and would do more than smirk like Sev did. She'd jinx, hex, curse, slap, punch and then kick them when they were down. Kick them repeatedly till they cried and screamed. She wanted to kick them in the ribs. She wanted to kick them in the nuts so hard they'd never have children. She wanted to stamp on their wand hands and then twist her foot to feel their broken bones grind beneath her heel. They had messed with her for the last time. There would be no more smiles, 'oh sorry, Evans', 'want to go out with me, Evans?', 'how about a kiss, Evans?' … Sev kissed better than Potter anyway and that changed Lily's thoughts from how she'd take revenge back to Severus.

Yesterday, he was her friend again. Talking about anything. Even crazy sounding things … well, maybe not so crazy since they were shagging, and Lily had spelled out the facts of life to Severus long ago since he came from such a crappy home where his parents taught him nothing about how nice people lived. It was definitely not the Severus Snape she saw frequently at school with the evil Slytherins who cast evil spells at girls while he stood back and watched, doing nothing about it.

Actually, was there much of a difference between those horrible boys and Potter, Black, Lupin and Pettigrew? If someone told her in June or July that four boys from Hogwarts planned to lure nice girls from school to a remote location and slip them some potion so they became their sex slaves for a week, Lily would guessed Muliber, Avery, Rosier and Wilkes in a heartbeat. She did not think Severus would be too keen on it, based on how hesitant he was yesterday. He didn't even that ridiculously large jumper off. Sev was so weird.

Well, Lily was not going to get anything done lying about in bed. She had a full day ahead of her. The simple part would be planning and committing four murders.

After she gave her mother an obligatory 'good morning' when she entered the kitchen, Lily realized that Petunia followed her into the room.

"Good morning," she said to her sister.

Petunia narrowed her eyes and hissed, "What were you doing with that Snape boy yesterday?"

There was a brief moment of panic, but then Lily reasoned that if Petunia knew something definite, she would not be asking a question. She'd be making an accusation to expose her indiscretion to the world.

Mrs. Evans commented, "Oh, you've made up with him? That's good. I thought I saw him in the back garden by that rock where he used to leave you notes, Lily."

"He did?" Lily asked, wondering what he could have put in a note. Maybe he thought it over and realized that Lily had used him or something to that effect. That would solve everything. As she went outside to get whatever was there, she reconsidered that that would be more of a girl thing or a really strange thing for a guy to think that a girl used him for a quick shag. Oh, this was Severus. Nothing was too strange for him.

There was a folded piece of parchment there. Lily grabbed it, first wished to find something normal written on it, then unfolded it.

_Lily – I didn't know if you wanted me to come round this morning like I used to. Can you send me your owl to let me know? Love, Severus_

Her mouth twisted as she read the 'Love, Severus'. Well, what else did she expect him to write? As her mind went through the normal sort of closings, she thought 'your faithful servant' might not be bad … oh wait, that was before when they used to play make believe things. This was terribly real.

Going back inside, Petunia's arms were crossed over her chest and she pronounced haughtily, "You were seen all over the place with Snape yesterday afternoon."

Lily smirked. That was the least of what she had gotten up to. Wait … she had followed Sev home, and then had stood there like a total moron rubbing her upper thighs together like some overheated slattern. Well, she was not addled today, Lily could go over there and take a look, rather than sending an owl.

"Mum, I think I'll go see Sev."

"What about your breakfast? I kept it warm for you."

"Oh, well, alright … and thanks."

Petunia huffed, "Aren't you going to say something to her?"

"Severus is the only person Lily's age that has the same … talents around here." Mrs. Evans then asked, "You did not say much about your holiday with the Potter family, Lily. Did something happen to make you reconsider your friendship with Severus? I guess he forgave you quick enough then?"

"Uh, I guess. Wait, forgive me? Who said I needed forgiving?"

"You did not speak to him all last summer, and this holiday till yesterday. I'd say that was monumentally stubborn of you."

"Monumentally stubborn?" Lily repeated. "He started it. If he hadn't called me … well, never mind."

"He called Princess Lily a bad word?" Petunia cackled.

"Stop that," Mrs. Evans reproached her elder daughter. "Couldn't you have just explained how he hurt your feelings and asked Severus to apologize?"

"He did apologize, as soon as he could. He couldn't then because some boys were bullying him, and when I tried to get them to stop, he snapped at me."

"Who cares if he's bullied?" Petunia scoffed. "I mean look at him. Open your eyes, Lily. I'm sure he gets called plenty of things."

"It wasn't just calling him names," Lily explained. She always said Sev should not bother with all that nonsense about what people said. He could not help his parents, living down at Spinner's End, or his looks … well, to some degree. His nose was what it was. "They were taking his clothes off and holding him up in the air in front of a crowd."

Petunia looked disgusted.

Mrs. Evans commented, "Oh my. That sounds horrible. Since you're a prefect, it is your duty to put a stop to it, Lily. You were absolutely right."

"A prefect? That doesn't work with these boys. One of them's a prefect and provides them with alibis. They attack both students and prefects."

"Why did you get involved then? Couldn't they have stripped you as well? I mean you said they are boys," Petunia pointed out.

"They wouldn't …," Lily stopped. Of course they would.

"Lily's top of her class, Petunia. That's why she's Head Girl now," Mrs. Evans cleared up.

"No, Sev is really good too," Lily murmured, sinking deeper into thought. Maybe that's why Sev had called her that, but why did he have to choose that word?

Sure, she was Head Girl now, but how could they have appointed Potter Head Boy? That was horrible. He hadn't even been a prefect. Stupid quidditch captain was all he was, and every prefect knew it since he trashed the prefect bathroom repeatedly by throwing swim parties in there with his buddies.

If she was Head Girl, and Potter was Head Boy, Hogwarts would not expect her to cooperate with him, would they? If she disliked him as a toerag before, that was nothing compared to the hate she felt for him now.

At the very least, Severus could help her bone up on her insults and hexes.

When she declared that she was off to meet Severus once she had picked over her breakfast, Lily had to remind her mother that Spinner's End may be somewhat dangerous, but obviously Severus could navigate it, she already had been to his house yesterday, and she was now allowed to do magic outside of school discreetly.

Petunia latched onto Lily visiting his house, but Lily retorted, "He had to take their groceries home, and tell his mother that he was going for a walk with me, you ninny."

On her walk to Spinner's End, Lily was not as confident as she sounded with her mother. The brick houses in various states of disrepair had miserable looking children and a few older people hanging about them, a lot of shouting emitting from the open windows, and a variety of stenches wafting from the street, gardens and from within the houses themselves.

Lily thought this was the front door of Sev's house because it had been the back door of the house on the end. Unsure of whether to knock, Lily decided to go around to the rear. Sev always used the back door at their house, and yesterday, used the kitchen door to enter his home.

When she reached the bare dirt garden with the only sign of a path the difference in the surface of the harder earth leading straight from the broken gate to the back door, Lily hesitated. What if he wasn't home? What if one of parents answered the door? The window was not open to just softly call his name to see if he was close by so she did not disturb anyone else.

Lily was waffling about the garden, when the back door opened, and Mrs. Snape called out, "What are you doing?"

"Uh ..."

"Get in here instead of spinning in circles like you are mentally challenged."

She did not particularly care for the tone in Mrs. Snape's voice, trying to make her feel like an idiot, but they had never been on speaking terms. Phrasing in her head how to best ask politely for Severus so they could go somewhere to talk, Lily blurted out, "Mr. Snape," because he was seated at the kitchen table with a bowl, a large pint glass filled with dark brown brew with a healthy head of foam, and was looking up from a folded over newspaper with a pen poised in his hand. She quickly added, "Good afternoon."

Lily received a grunt to acknowledge her greeting, before he turned his attention to scrawl something in the mostly completed crossword.

"Sit in Severus' seat," Mrs. Snape indicated with a bony outstretched finger. Her fingers were longer than Sev's, Lily thought to herself. They were creepy looking and a bit crooked too.

Lily sat where she was told, but there was a bowl already at the place along with a spoon and an end of bread crust beside it.

Feeling the stare drilling into her, Lily looked towards Mr. Snape and noticed he was scowling at her.

Mrs. Snape answered his look with, "There's an extra bowl since Severus missed dinner last night."

That did nothing to dampen the glare since he suspected that Lily was the reason why Severus did not come home last night.

If Lily were to tell the truth, she did not want a bowl of cabbage and bean soup or whatever this was called. Neither of the Snapes looked like they cared, and she knew from Severus they could get angry for little or no reason at all.

A chair slid through the doorway and placed itself opposite her on the other side of the table. Lily turned to look at Mrs. Snape next to the stove, but if it was her, her wand was already put away. She was ladling more of this soup from a big pot on the stove into a bowl.

There was further proof of how brainless Lily was yesterday. She had seen the stove, but today saw it. It was some black iron thing that she only saw on something like _Upstairs, Downstairs_.

The bowl was placed on the table in front of the new chair and Mrs. Snape went through to the next room. Lily heard her yell, "Lunch," before she returned and got herself a bowl, bringing it along with two spoons to the table. The second spoon she put next to Severus' bowl and sat down to eat.

Lily looked about without trying to be obvious, but luckily, Mr. Snape had gone back to finishing his crossword. She noticed that his bowl was bigger, and that he had at least one large untouched slice of bread along with a second that might have been whole before that big bite mark was subtracted from it.

Feeling that she better do something before either of them said anything, Lily picked up her spoon and sampled the food. It was watery. She guessed that was the word to use for it. There was no thickener added, and now that she glanced at Sev's bowl, she saw he had less stuff in his. His was a bowl of flavored water with a few beans and shreds of cabbage.

In the doorway, Severus had come to a complete halt. Lily was sitting in his chair, eating lunch with his parents. It was like yesterday with that dream like quality that seemed reminiscent of something about to turn into a nightmare. How did she get in their house? Why hadn't he heard anything?

He started into motion again and sat down in the added chair before he got yelled at for standing around like a lackwit while food that his father paid good money for grew cold. Severus got hit for hardly any reason at all and he did not have to add to it. He glanced at the clock. Father would be going back to work soon, but that did not mean Severus could not get his account settled this evening.

Lily stopped eating and stared at Severus. He did not have that bruise on his cheek near his left eye yesterday. He gave her no clue what happened and tilted his head forward as he ate so his hair swung over his face to hide his injury.

For Severus, today was as odd as yesterday. Why was Lily doing these things? Even if she suddenly decided to forgive him, she had never come inside his house or eaten here. She had never expressed any interest in shagging before either. She was fortunate that this was only the second meal out of the pot. Father was not paid till Friday so more water would be added until a fresh pot was cooked up for Friday evening.

The meal was odd to Lily. Not just the food, but the quiet except for the sound of spoons clanking against the bowls, or Mr. Snape scrawling something on his crossword.

Then Severus' father rested his spoon in his empty bowl, drained his glass and stood, pushing his chair back with a scrape.

Lily tensed as he passed behind her, and he stopped at the door, threatening, "You better not be late tonight," before he left.

Once the door closed loudly, Severus gave his head a shake to move his hair and looked at Lily. She was still acting odd because usually Lily talked. Sitting quietly and observing to try to learn what was going on were not traits of hers.

When his mother got up to clear her dishes and his father's, Severus asked her, "What are you doing here?"

"I'd still be writing if I sent you an owl like you suggested."

"Writing what?"

"You were right yesterday."

Although Lily admitting he was right was a historic moment since it was so infrequent, Severus knew he had did most of the talking yesterday so was not sure at what point he said something that Lily reconsidered as correct. "About what?"

Nervous about how Severus would react and not certain if Mrs. Snape was even paying attention to them, Lily was vague. "Someone did give me something."

"Did you bring it? Or did it have something on it to make it disappear or crawl off after its job was done?"

"No, it's not like that … uh, there's a bit more. Can I talk to you alone?"

Severus considered Lily's request, then inquired, "Is it still a mystery where we'd need access to books, or should we go for a walk outside?"

Lily was struck by a sudden thought that Severus was willing to aid her, even after she just told him that yesterday was … not her … or maybe he was not thinking about that. She had shown up here after all, the least he could do was help sort this.

"Maybe we'll need books," she admitted. This was not going to be in their textbooks. Lily could not imagine Prof. Slughorn teaching more than how one recognizes Amortentia and the side effects of love potions. Was what Potter slipped her even a love potion? Lily acted like a complete whore, and her mind went along with it to fill in the missing pieces that Potter was her serious boyfriend or something like that now. He did say they'd still be together at Hogwarts so that helped give her that impression. A love potion should have kept her in the same room with him, watching Potter sleep and think everything he said was absolute brilliance. Now that she was sober, she could honestly say she had been temporarily insane, but she had not fit the definition of someone under the effects of a love potion. There was supposed to be a lot of different kinds. They might have found one that got the drinker to question if they were or weren't. Wait, if she was given a love potion, then why did she attack Severus? This was so confusing. Killing Potter, Black, Lupin and Pettigrew was the easier solution.

Severus was back to looking at her, with his hand on his empty bowl. Now that he had Lily's attention, he let his eyes drop to Lily's bowl which was still half-full.

In reply, she made a face and muttered, "Uh, no."

He responded with a look that Lily could only describe as pure Severus, the disapproving one, then he switched their bowls. His gaze turned towards his mother and he must have seen that she had turned because he lifted Lily's bowl and drank what remained quickly, then put the empty bowl back on the table and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand.

They exchanged looks again, with Lily making a face at what Sev just did, and him shrugging back at her, before he grabbed both bowls and took them over to the sink.

When he got back to the table, he picked up the bread crust she had ignored, and used his wand to move the chair he used into the next room. Severus then instructed her, "Come on," and followed the chair.

Lily was amazed at the number of books in here. The room felt small because every wall was covered in shelves from floor to ceiling and they were all filled with books. The only things that were not books were the front door, a window with shelves beneath it, and a fireplace with a clock upon the mantel along with a couple candlesticks and some little things. There were old framed photos above that, but she should wait before she went staring at them.

She remembered that Severus had said he had books at home so that's why he seemed more knowledgeable than an average first year, but he did not say his house contained a library.

"You can sit in that chair," he said, pointing at a worn armchair with the hand still holding the bread.

Lily sat down and wondered why anyone would have an armchair stuffed so tightly that the seat had absolutely no give. It was not the least bit comfortable. A rounded rock would have been as cozy.

Since Severus had started gnawing on the bread crust, Lily began, "Okay, I know this is going to sound bad, but I got to get a few points in to get to the part we need to get to so give me a chance, Sev."

He nodded. His imagination was already firing with all sorts of terrible things that could have happened to Lily.

"I got a letter that I'm head girl this year. So I'm happy about that, and send my owl to all my friends to …" she noticed Severus scowl at that, but continued, "let them know. You know, the girls in my year in Gryffindor. I even wrote a letter to Prof. McGonagall to thank her because she was the one that wrote me.

"So … a couple weeks go by, and I get a letter from Potter." Seeing his face darken further, Lily agreed, "Yeah, I know. Well, Potter wrote that he heard I was head girl and he was head boy."

"What?" Severus exclaimed, indignation clear by his tone and facial expression.

"Let's just say I agree that he should not be, Sev. Let me get back to this. Anyway, he wrote and said it was Hogwarts tradition that the head boy and head girl do something over the summer holiday to get better acquainted."

Trying to ignore the skeptical look on his face, Lily continued, "And he suggested that I join his parents and him at a week long seaside holiday at a rented cottage."

"You went then?" Severus asked.

"I did, but when I got there it was not my idea of a cottage. It was huge."

He snorted. That sounded like typical Potter, flaunting his wealth.

"No, it gets worse. Black, Pettigrew and Lupin are there and there's all these girls and the place is an absolute mess even with a house elf scurrying around. Finally, since I did not see them, I asked Potter where his parents were, and he blithely replied that they changed their minds and went to oh, I forget, but it was somewhere in France. So I tell him that I've changed my mind and I'm not staying. I hadn't even unpacked and then it happened. I'm pretty sure there was something in the pumpkin juice."

"And then?" Severus prompted, wondering how Lily continued to remain so gullible.

"I moved into Potter's bedroom for the week."

Not sure of how to phrase it so Lily did not get angry with him, he let his suggestion dangle, "So you …?"

"Yes, and they kept giving me pumpkin juice and I came home, ran out of the house, found you and you know ..."

Severus was completely disgusted to think that Potter had touched Lily, and then she shagged him within hours of shagging Potter. He did not want to even look at her right now, but this was his big chance. If he was understanding this correctly, Potter committed a criminal act and it would not be his word against Potter's, it would be Lily's. There was also Lily herself. She came to him for help and was still talking to him today, after whatever Potter gave her to shag like a kneazle wore off. The 'no longer speaking to you' was over. She also had her memory. Lily knew what they did yesterday and everything he said. He may have sounded like a sappy dope, not knowing that Lily had not forgiven him and things could go back to the way they were along with snogging and shagging, but she knew what he said, and it was the truth. Wait … he was getting way ahead of himself with all this thinking. What if Lily was only here to explain what she did yesterday, then leave? Severus had to be very agreeable right now, rather than pointing out what a complete dunderhead Lily was to ever trust Potter.

"That's … I don't know what to say, Lily. I have heard of terrible things … sort of like someone knew someone that knew someone, but this is so … are you alright? No, not that ... I mean are you physically hurt?" There he thought he did a good job of pausing and phrasing it, while expressing his overriding concern was for Lily alone.

"Uh, I guess I am. Right now, I'm mostly angry."

"At me? I mean if you are, you're right that I should have known better because that's not the type of thing you do."

"No, I was not going to take 'no' for an answer from you, Sev," Lily admitted. "I'm only thankful it was you. With someone else, it would have been downright embarrassing."

Severus fought hard to suppress a smile from creeping across his face. Lily currently did not hate him.

"Angry? I can understand that, Lily. What do you want to do most or first?"

"I don't know. I mean … how could they just do something like that?"

Severus paused to think of something that was not too confrontational to say. Potter did whatever he wanted to whoever he wanted, but Lily would not believe that anyone would do something like that to her. Potter and his friends did things for laughs, not to be evil like anyone in Slytherin house.

"They can't legally."

Lily started, Sev's mum was in the doorway.

Mrs. Snape continued, "Get yourself to St. Mungo's to have them test if there's any trace of it left in you to report them to Magical Law Enforcement. That is if you're serious. Black's probably untouchable, and Potters rely on being descended from Ignotus Peverell to make themselves invulnerable in court. Oh, and Dumbledore holds a lot of weight with the Wizengamot. I've heard he still supports Gryffindor boys having their fun. Used to cover for them all the time when he was their head of house when I went to Hogwarts. Awarded them points if they were smart enough to tie their own shoes."

"Are you saying it's not worth fighting?"

She shrugged, "It may not get into the newspaper, but there's always rumors. They're getting old enough for their families to want to set them up with smart marriage matches. Whispers of rape might keep some of the fatter plums from falling into their laps."

Scowling, Lily thought of how it sounded like their lives would be blissfully untouched by their actions. She was just one more riot of laughs in their lifelong comedy.

"How do I get there?"

"I can go with you," Severus volunteered.

"No, you will not," Mrs. Snape snapped. "You will remain here and serve your father dinner if I do not return till later. I'll go with Evans to her house so she can consult with her parents before haring off to London."

Severus thought this sounded like a terrible plan. Lily came to him for help, not his mother.

"My mum?"

"Were you held prisoner and raped for a week? Even muggles find that unusual."

"She thought I was on holiday. That's what I told her when I left home, and when I got back I was still all crazy."

"Now you're not. She can come with us."

"How? She's a muggle."

"But we are not. What is your address?"

Severus supplied the house number and street. He suspected his mother already knew it.

Mrs. Snape nodded at Lily and suggested, "You should go first."

"What?"

"Apparate. Is your back garden visible from the street?"

"Apparate? But … oh, uh, not really."

Lily took out her wand, and in her now flustered state at telling her mother, circled three times before she popped out of the Snapes.

Before apparating, Severus' mother commented, "She's a real tit."

Severus sighed in agreement, then trudged into the kitchen to see if it was tidy.

Lily was speaking to him, asked him for help, and said she was glad to have shagged him instead of someone else. Although he could die happy now if his father decided to throttle him tonight, Severus would prefer not to antagonize him.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

**Chapter 2**

**~~~~ In Godric's Hollow ~~~~**

It was well past noon when James woke to a horrifying sight, even with his glasses off.

Sirius was holding himself in his hand, waving it less than a foot from James' drool smeared chin, asking, "Do you think I've put some muscle on with that intense workout I got, Prongs? Eh? What do you think?"

"Put that away, Padfoot. What's wrong with you?"

"Keep dreaming. This has plowed so much trim, I think I should be eligible for an agriculturerererer of the year."

"What?"

"Er er er, Prongs. Get it?"

"What are you rambling about?"

"That's what the girls say when I'm jamming it down their throats. Er er er."

"Uh, whatever …" he muttered, putting on his glasses. Now that they were on, he saw that Sirius had only stepped back, but had not done as he requested. "Put your … away. What if my mum comes in?"

"I'd politely refuse, mate."

James suddenly realized what Sirius was suggesting, and his face scrunched up in disgust. "Don't talk about my mum that way."

"I was only kidding. If your parents hadn't let me move in, where would I be now?"

"Probably laying face down in a pool of your own vomit, Padfoot."

Sirius smirked thinking of the past week of girls and firewhiskey. It was a blur, but he'd always remember it as the best week he ever forgot.

"Hey, are Remus and Peter already up?"

"Yeah, they went either to the pub or the post office or something."

"Oh, I wanted to see when they wanted to go to Diagon Alley."

"Yeah, I need more fireworks too."

"No, I meant for our school things."

"What? We got almost two weeks yet. You're letting this head boy nonsense go to your head."

"Hey, Evans wants me to concentrate on my studies."

"What does that got to do with me? Or even you for that matter? Nag, nag, nag … you don't need that."

"It's our last year at school, mate."

"Yeah, so? You don't have time to be hitting the books. You need to concentrate on what's important. World Cup. Next summer. You got to train."

"Train. Schmain. I'm a natural. I'm sure to make the team for England."

"No, no, you got to show a good work effort. Remember, Prongs? What that guy from … was it Portney … anyway, after the Cup, you'll be looking to take your pick of professional teams, so you got to show them that you train hard and play hard."

"You're right, Padfoot. A week of Evans just got me all muddled. I'll let her know that I don't have time for that book stuff."

"Let her know? Why would you let her know anything?"

"She's my girlfriend now," James announced.

Sirius laughed and kept laughing until the crestfallen look on James face made him slow down to a chuckle, then stop. "What?" he asked.

"I'm serious."

"Me, Sirius. You, numbnut."

"No! Seriously, Evans agreed to go out with me. I can't wait till the first Hogsmeade weekend. I'll take her to Honeydukes, Zonkos and then for a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks. Yeah, it'll be great."

"No, it won't. If you want company for Hogsmeade, wait until Friday just before it to ask her. There's no need to burden yourself with a steady girlfriend, Prongs. You're our quidditch captain."

"It's more than a date to Hogsmeade," James replied airily.

Sirius laughed, "I don't care how good you think Evans was, Prongs. Without that potion, she's not going to do a tenth of that stuff."

"What potion?"

"_The _potion."

"She wasn't on any potion. Evans has always fancied me."

Cooing, Sirius simpered a bit and called to James, "Oh toerag."

James grinned like a goon. Evans did call him that a lot.

"Get over yourself. Wormtail gave her some pumpkin juice when she first got there, just like the rest of them."

"What rest of them?"

"I know you probably took your glasses off so you weren't blinded by the great expanse of pale skin in front of you, but there were other girls in the house. How do you think Wormtail scored two hot babes? One of each."

"Each?"

"One blonde and one brunette."

"Wait, Peter had two girls?"

"Yeah."

"So he bought some love potion and gave it to them?"

"No, not love potion. As soon as they stop taking that, they'll want to kill you or worse."

"Oh yeah, Slughorn did say that people on love potion remember how they acted."

Sirius rolled his eyes. Now Prongs remembered. Couldn't remember it for his OWL, but a few gifts got spread around and old Sluggy let Prongs join him and Peter in NEWT level. Sirius would have stuck his head in his cauldron and boiled it if he had to have Wormtail giggling in his ear constantly.

James shooed Sirius out of his bedroom so he could have the house elves get him dressed. He had to fix his own hair because they could never get it right, no matter how long they worked on it.

After he was finished getting ready, he found the guys out on the veranda enjoying a late lunch. James joined them because he was famished, having slept completely through breakfast.

While Sirius was buttering a roll, he muttered, "Ow. Oi, you elf, butter this for me."

"Aren't you getting a little old to have a house elf cut up your food?" Remus asked.

"It's my wrist. I think I sprained it with all those contraceptive charms," Sirius said while waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Peter laughed. Sirius was so funny.

Remus shook his head.

James declared indignantly, "You? That's the girl's job, mate."

"Uh, James, you did cast it last week on Evans?" Remus reminded him.

"What? She knows her charms. I think that's Evans' best subject."

"Prongs ..." Peter started, but Sirius cut him off, "Oi, I told you with that potion they wouldn't be in their right minds. I showed you the charm to cast. Did you cast it, or did you see her cast it sometime?"

"Huh? What are you talking about? Contraception is the woman's responsibility. I'm not the one that's going to end up pregnant."

Even though he knew this was a serious matter, Peter cheered his agreement out of habit, "Yeah!"

"When we talked about this, I showed you the charm. You verbally agreed that you heard and understood. Don't go playing games on me now, Prongs. Did you cast it?" Sirius asked.

"Uh, I think Prongs may have agreed, but not been paying attention," Remus explained. "He nicked another snitch and that seemed to have his full attention."

"When was this?" James asked. He had bought a whole crate of snitches to play with.

Unable to contain his enthusiasm since he played such an important part in the plan, Peter loudly said, "When Padfoot found that wonderful potion. The girl thinks she just got a craving for a little action, but not for someone in particular. See? It's better than a love potion because they don't get all ga ga over a wizard."

"Where'd you find that?" James asked. This was the first time he had heard of it.

"In a book, you dope. It makes a witch really loose and she'll do it with any bloke."

Catching on, James panicked and asked, "None of you touched Evans, did you?"

"No, we kept pushing her back to you whenever she came crawling up to us. We knew you picked her," Sirius told him.

"She was crawling?"

"And drooling," Peter giggled.

"Where was I?"

"Asleep, I think. She kept getting out of your room," Sirius complained.

"Really?"

"Yeah," Peter agreed. "You should have tied her to the bed or something."

"Listen, if you did not cast any charms on her, I think we have a problem," Remus interjected.

"What?" James asked. "It's a proven fact that a woman cannot get pregnant the first time she does it."

All three responded at once with their own observations.

Peter cheered in a singsong voice, "Oh yeah, you scored another cherry. Let's hear it for Prongs! Woot! That makes it eight now, and catching up with Padfoot."

"You only did it once?" Sirius scoffed. Then he answered Peter, "Uh, excuse me, Wormtail, but if we're still keeping score, I hit twenty-nine. None of you will ever catch me."

Remus was trying to remind them, "That potion had a fertility component. Remember? There was that odd explanation of how it was to be used."

Peter ignored Remus to demand, "I'll need names, Padfoot."

Sirius chose to ignore Peter and answer Remus with a dismissive wave of his hand, "That's for special cases. Newlywed brides that won't let the old geezer they were sold to touch them. It's a lot more humane for them to take a potion like this, then to be forced."

"Did it say how fertile?" James asked.

"Don't worry about it," Sirius said. "She can go see Pomfrey, if she is, and it'll be taken care of."

"Madam Pomfrey handles that sort of thing?" Remus asked.

"All the time," Sirius claimed. "Can't have the school full of little screaming Blacks."

"Yeah, or little Wormtails."

James, Sirius and Remus all gave Peter the same look that spoke volumes as to how likely they thought that was.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**~~~~ At St. Mungo's ~~~~**

Lily could tell her mother had not hit the roof yet because Mrs. Snape was still around. Mum was giving her _the look _though. The 'wait till I get you home' look that Lily had not seen in years.

The healer was trying some different charms to narrow down what sort of fertility potion Lily was given before they could do anything further except confirm that she was pregnant.

For the life of her, Lily had no idea why boys would find slipping girls fertility potion funny.

"Ah, there we go. It's Dark Arts alright. Nothing I can do about it, or it could kill you. It'll think you are being disobedient to your husband's will."

"I'm not married."

"A potion does not care if there's no ring on your finger. You said that it motivated you to seek out wizards. How many did you interact with?"

"If you mean shag, two."

"Okie doke, so let's see, it should let me do some diagnostic charms because the magic is interested in having a living baby at the end of this. So … let's see … yup, two. Congratulations, it's twins."

"What?" Lily exclaimed. "So if I was set loose to wander, I could have attacked more wizards and have a whole litter in me."

"If I recall this correctly, since it is not prescribed by certified healers, it is advised when administering such a brew that the witch be kept confined with only the company of other witches or house elves, besides her husband."

Mrs. Snape inquired, "Could you verify parentage now? Although Evans says two, perhaps it is twins with the same father."

"Hold on, let me get that quill out …" the healer replied.

Lily sneered at the ridiculous pink ostrich feather quill and the bottle of baby blue ink that went with it. This was serious business, not time for wizardly frivolity.

The healer confirmed that the twins had two different fathers, James Potter and Severus Snape. It was at that point that Mrs. Evans fainted, missing the colorful language that Mrs. Snape used to describe her son.

Once her mother was off the floor, and comfortably lying down, Lily explained, "I attacked Severus, Mrs. Snape. He had no choice."

"My son could have defended himself, if he chose to."

"He'd never hurt me."

Eileen Snape saw no point in continuing a conversation on this subject with Lily Evans. She was a moron that deserved to be in this mess, except she had dragged Severus into it. Why was he such a fool over this girl? One only had to talk to her for a few minutes to tell she was a waste of time. It was not that she was muggleborn, but that she was muggleborn and thought she was someone special.

"Before you contact Magical Law Enforcement, I suggest you think of someone that you can rely on to advocate you in this matter."

"Advocate?"

"Someone respectable. Who do you know?"

"Prof. Dumbledore."

"I've already told you that he may side with your attackers."

"Right, well Prof. Slughorn is fond of me. He ..."

"He's available to the highest bidder. He'll can be bought. Try to think integrity."

Lily did not know why Mrs. Snape was being so persistent. If she told the truth, then there had to be some sort of justice. Integrity. Her best subject was charms so she suggested, "Prof. Flitwick?"

"Try all human."

"What?"

"He's part goblin."

"Oh, uh, Prof. McGonagall?"

"Minerva McGonagall?"

"You know her?"

"She was Head Girl, a couple years older than I. She was in Gryffindor though, but she could think. Does she favor you?"

"Favor me?"

"The others are also Gryffindors. Who does she favor, them or you?"

"Me. Those boys are always causing trouble. She takes points, assigns detentions, threatens them with suspension and expulsion ..."

"Are you sure that's not just a show for the victims? Potter and Black are not the only well-to-do students at Hogwarts."

"Oh no, the headmaster usually steps in when he feels she's being too harsh."

"Can you floo her and ask her to meet you here?"

"Floo … oh, that green powder."

"Yes, there's grates in the lobby. I can floo on your behalf if you've never used it."

"You?"

"I'll only explain why I'm calling for you. I'll let you tell her all the details, if she comes."

"Are you sure?"

"You may not be allowed to return to school in your condition. I cannot recall any pregnant students when I attended. That may have changed since then."

Lily blurted out, "Not allowed, but I'm Head Girl."

"Where are your priorities, Lily?" Mrs. Evans asked from where she was resting.

"But mum, I've worked hard for six years, got top marks in almost all the courses I've taken, and ..."

"There's no need to panic. Your head of house will be familiar with the school rules. You can't be the first female student to be up the duff," Mrs. Snape chided.

Lily did not care for that term. Up the duff. Whoever thought of such a crass way of saying pregnant?

Mrs. Snape did not return alone. Prof. McGonagall was with her.

"Why are you in hospital, Evans?" she asked, scanning her student visually from head to toe.

"Professor, it's all due to a stupid prank. Potter wrote me a letter, inviting me to join his family for a seaside holiday because it's a Hogwarts tradition that the head boy and head girl spend time together over the summer holiday."

"There is no such tradition, Miss Evans."

"I've wised up to that now."

"I went, and found that the location was a big house overlooking the water. Rather than Potter and his parents, it was Potter, Black, Pettigrew and Lupin along with a bunch of women. Drinking and basically having a nonstop party from the mess that was all over. It took me close to a half hour to get a straight answer from anyone as to what was going on, and I thought I wanted to leave, but then it was too late. I stayed and joined in, and Potter had his way with me repeatedly and it was due to some potion they kept giving me."

"Had his way?" Prof. McGonagall asked for clarification.

"Shagged me rotten. Nonstop. Day and night."

"Oh."

"I was crazed. It was horrible."

"Undoubtedly."

"When the week was up, I apparated home, but they had given me more potion that day, so I got home and was still all fired up so I somehow tracked down Severus because he lives nearby. He asked me at least a dozen times what was wrong with me, if I received anything in the mail, if I saw anyone that could have cast a charm on me, but I ignored him and just kept going after one thing."

"Severus Snape?"

"Yeah. So today, I went to talk to him because he seemed to know I was odd yesterday. I wanted to explain that I thought he was right and his mum suggested I come here for some testing to try to find out what they had given me."

Minerva nodded.

"It wasn't some goofy love potion, but some Dark Arts fertility potion."

"Fertility?"

"Yes, so I'm pregnant with Potter's … bastard, and they thought it would be funny for me to have more so I'm also carrying Severus' baby too. If I lived closer to more wizards, who knows how many it could have been."

"They were giving this potion to all the women at the house?"

"I think so. I was told that the big pitcher of pumpkin juice was squeezed fresh by the house elves every morning, but I definitely saw Pettigrew doing something with it before breakfast, and he brought his two girls huge glasses of it every morning."

"So what do you intend to do, Miss Evans?"

"Intend to do? Isn't it illegal to do something like that? I did not agree to get doped up with potion. Before they gave me a glass of it, I had already told Potter I was leaving."

"Definitely, but I meant about the babies. Since you are already at St. Mungo's, are they going to sort it for you so you can return to school?"

"They can't because it's Dark Arts. The healer said this potion would interpret that sort of thing as a wife disobeyed her husband or something like that."

Minerva nodded and agreed, "Yes, I was afraid you were getting to that. Well, I can support your decision to report this incident to the authorities, but you cannot attend Hogwarts in this condition."

"What?"

"Unmarried pregnant students are not allowed."

"But it's not my fault."

"Unfortunately, that is not a consideration regarding that rule."

"What about unmarried fathers?"

"It is unfair that both Potter and Snape would be able to attend."

"Not Severus, I meant Potter. He's the one that did this."

"I will speak to the headmaster regarding this situation," Minerva told her. She fully intended to see that Potter was no longer head boy.

"I guess that'll have to do for now, but as I said, I dragged Severus into it. He shouldn't be the one getting into trouble."

Arnold Peasegood offered to go over to St. Mungo's to take a complaint since Alastor Gumboil only had a few minutes left on his shift. It was not going to be a quick one, the healer said some Hogwarts student claimed a male student slipped her a potion to soften her up and rape her without a struggle. These always turned into 'she said, he said'. Once a love potion faded, it only left memories. Since teenage witches always acted in the most outrageous manner when they fancied a boy, it was hardly evidence if they recalled swanning about after a bloke.

When he arrived and went upstairs to visit this student, he was surprised to see Minerva McGonagall present. Arnold was not worried, he followed the letter of the law but he noted that he should be careful. McGonagall became volatile when angered, but she was a reasonable witch who had years of experience with these teenage melodramas.

He questioned, listened, took notes, and felt that this was actually turning into a very interesting case. There was proof that there was a potion administered because for some reason this Potter chose a fertility potion rather than a love potion. Unfortunately, it was a dark potion, so he'd have to refer this to the auror squad. They didn't usually handle something this trivial, but Minerva McGonagall's explanation about how this pack of boys probably found this all highly amusing, got Arnold thinking that having a pair of aurors turning their homes upside down might stop the laughter, or at least make their parents cautious. Children did not simply wake up one morning and throw a few ingredients in a cauldron and come up with something like this.

In addition to that, there was the letter from Potter that Mrs. Evans pulled out of her handbag that show Potter preyed on the muggleborn student by suggesting traditions that did not exist to lure her to the crime site, which he had prepared in advance for this purpose.

Arnold also had a list of names of other female victims and descriptions of others. Evans did not know how they were lured to the crime scene because with all of them on this potion, the girls did not talk to each other, and just focused their attentions on the four accused.

There could have been further problems when these young men sent Evans home to her muggle neighborhood where the second victim also lived. Miss Evans mentioned that she first assaulted him in a muggle store, and harassed him persistently on the streets in full view of passerby. Although it was not unusual to see teenagers acting in an indecent manner, it could have turned quite a profane, public display if the other victim did not accede to her demands privately.

He instructed the victim, and the other victim's mother, that they and their families were not to make any contact, threats, or retaliate while the investigation was ongoing.

Returning to the Ministry, Arnold was surprised that Mr. Crouch had already left for the day. It was not even eight yet. However, they were under strict instructions to never turn a case over to another department, even the aurors, without consulting with their boss. If there was one kind of wizard Mr. Crouch hated, it was a dark wizard. The Black name was no surprise, but Potter was, and Arnold thought there was a Pettigrew that worked in some junior position in the Ministry.

Arnold threw some floo powder in the grate, and spoke, "Mr. Crouch, it's Arnold Peasegood."

The answer was almost immediate, "What is it, Peasegood?"

"I have a new case that I'd like to turn over to the aurors."

"What's it about?"

"Four male Hogwarts students lured at least a dozen females to a rented vacation house and plied them with a fertility potion to drastically lower their inhibitions in order to rape them without a struggle. The potion has been identified as a Dark potion by the healers at St. Mungo's. The first victim turned up a day after being released by the perpetrators after being held for a week. She is pregnant and due to the nature of the potion, the healer in charge of her case deems it to risky to terminate it without causing her death."

"Four students? Is there any indication yet if they brewed it, or is it suspected they bought it somewhere, Peasegood?"

"That has not been determined yet, sir."

"Which students?"

"Sirius Black ..."

"Another Black, tsk … go on."

"James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew."

There was an outburst of background noise on Mr. Crouch's end of the floo. It sounded like wild cheering.

Trying to ignore his son, Mr. Crouch asked, "Pettigrew? Is he related to Pettigrew in Ludicrous Patents?"

"Not sure, sir. I have not contacted any of the accused, who may be seventeen, or their families once I heard it was a dark potion."

"Excuse me, Peasegood. My son seems to be having some sort of fit."

Within the Crouch household, a jubilant Barty Crouch, Jr. was whooping, cheering and dancing around. At last, the Marauders had gone too far. Next year was going to be wonderful. His underpants would not be stretched out the back of his trousers and over his head. He could use any lavatory in the school. He could use stairs without getting knocked off. He wouldn't even be beaten about the head with his own books. Barty could walk to Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures like a normal person, rather than having his neck hurt from spinning his head around, and racing in a crouch from one bush or tree to another, because he needed to be ready for an attack at any time from these older boys. The only reason he even spoke to Regulus Black was for mutual protection. Black, and his older brother, were conceited gits, and now he'd be able to tell Black off the next time he caught him standing in front of the bathroom mirror shirtless and admiring himself while he flexed his muscles, smoothing and petting his luxurious growth of chest hair. This was almost as good as scoring twelve OWLs, one more than his father.

"What do you think you are doing?"

"Huh?" Barty, Jr. replied, and then put his arms down. "At last they've been caught, and the headmaster isn't in charge of their punishment now, is he?"

"You know these four?"

"Know them? Of course I know them, they're my archenemies! Don't you ever listen to me, father? Why don't you ever listen to me? Can you arrest them quick so I can watch their trial? Or if it takes time to build up a great case so they'll never see daylight again because they'll be rotting in the bowels of Azkaban, get me excused from school so I can sit right in front where they can see me smiling at their misfortune?"

Crouch looked at his wife to get a clue as to what the boy was raving about now.

"Barty dear, those are the four who attack the younger Slytherins in the lavatories, stairs and lawns. Remember I showed you that scar on young Barty's shoulder, and I told you I wrote Albus Dumbledore and did not receive a decent reply to my concerns?"

Shaking off this trivial nonsense, he replied to his wife, "Vaguely."

Sighing at her husband's lack of concern, Mrs. Crouch summed it up before she lost his attention entirely, "They bully and attack younger students or those they find alone. Barty even told me they undressed another boy in front of the whole school last year. It was only a matter of time before the carte blanche that Dumbledore gives them at Hogwarts spilled over into your jurisdiction."

"Dumbledore?"

"He encourages them. Thinks they're witty and clever," Barty Jr. sneered. Even at school he was ignored. He'd show them all one day.

What did a Gryffindor know about witty or clever? Barty wondered to himself as he turned back to the grate.

"Peasegood, I want to be kept informed of any developments and at least hear from the auror that takes over from this case daily. Do you hear me?"

"Yes, sir."

In the nearby auror office, the name Black was noticed and Sirius' address was confirmed. Twelve Grimmauld Place was somewhere they'd love to search, turn upside down and inside out. They would need more than this one girl, a letter and a healer as proof though, Orion Black could get quite nasty both with a legal and magical defense.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

~~~~~ Returning Home ~~~~

Lily had expected a bit more action from Magical Law Enforcement. Taking a report like it was a traffic accident was not her idea of taking care of things. The only ray of hope is if they were able to reveal exactly what potion was used, there was a chance of St. Mungo's being able to counteract its long-term effects so they could take care of her two little problems.

Up in her bedroom after her father and Petunia got the news, Lily could only think of one thing. James Potter had ruined her life as a joke.

Petunia's suggestion that Lily be sent somewhere was already coming true. She was home, and would stay home, or would until Petunia found someplace and worked day and night on her parents to get her younger sister shipped there before people noticed her pregnant belly.

Lily could do magic at home, but what was there to do really except join mum and Petunia on the sofa every afternoon to watch their shows.

Over at the Snapes, things got loud. His parents often argued at high volume, but now they were not arguing with each other. Severus would not even say they were arguing with him since he did not have anything to say. It was all one-sided as mother filled him and father in on what was going on, which was punctuated by foul-mouthed outbursts from his father.

He could hear what they were saying perfectly fine without the shakes and slaps. There was no flaw in their logic, if it was true that Lily was pregnant with his and Potter's children. Severus had nothing and continued to be a parasite here until he graduated school. He had no business reproducing and adding to everyone else's burden.

After he was sent to his room, Severus tried to listen, but now of all times, his parents chose to speak to each other like civilized beings, so there was nothing for him to overhear.

He was not overly concerned with his plummeting merit in his parents' eyes since he doubted they ever considered him worth much of anything in the first place. Severus was worried about Lily. Did she hate him now more than ever? Of course she did. She hated him till yesterday, probably could hardly stomach speaking to him today, and this fiasco refueled her animosity of him.

Miserable at the thought of how much Lily hated him now, Severus was lying on his side having a big pity blubber when his bedroom door slammed open. He was startled since he had locked it magically to prevent his father from wandering in here for a late night drunken beating. It was his father in the doorway, but it was his mother that said from behind her husband, "We've come to a decision."

Since she paused rather than coming out and announcing that they wanted him out of their house now, Severus tentatively asked, "What?"

"Hogwarts will not allow Evans back as a student in this condition if she is unmarried. Seeing as to how she will not have NEWTs, has not attended muggle school in years, will have two children with two different fathers at eighteen, our grandchild is likely to be raised in squalor."

Severus was not sure where she was heading, but was this 'squalor' they imagined worse than Spinner's End?

"She may be allowed to return to school next September, if she arranges with her family to watch the babies."

He nodded his agreement. That sounded like a possibility. Mrs. Evans always struck him as a caring woman, and perhaps she would do that for Lily.

"Evans seemed upset by the prospect of being barred from school this year, and struck me as extremely willful. She may not even consider that option, or spitefully refuse to attend next year, if Minerva McGonagall offers her a place."

Severus could easily imagine that happening. Lily was easily insulted and was able to hold a grudge for the slightest thing for a long time.

"You've probably already leaped to the conclusion that you could simply marry her."

Was mother teasing him? Lily hated him. He probably wouldn't even get a glance at this child she was being forced to have until it was an adult.

"I'm not sure if she'd want to do that."

"You think it more likely she'd rather patch things up with her rapist, and marry him since he is wealthy?"

"No," he replied with as much sarcasm as she gave with that wild suggestion.

"You'll never know unless it's offered," was his father's suggestion.

"But … we're in school," Severus stated.

"I know that, you fucking brainless barnacle. Since when did you develop a scrap of pride? You're just going to have to live here until you can afford to get out."

"Here?" Severus knew Lily would never go for that. If him proposing marriage to her was not insulting enough, what would suggesting they live with his parents till he could scrape together enough galleons or pounds to get them out here earn him?

"I can make your room a bit larger," his mother admitted.

"I doubt I'll earn enough money during the school year to afford someplace … what about the babies?"

"In here with you, you moronic bit of mucus. Maybe their screaming will remind you to not stick your cock anywhere without a bloody Durex on it."

Severus agreed with his parents, but did not get his hopes up. Lily would be very angry about this idea. This would be like a nightmare to her. Marrying a man she hated, and not having the things she had talked about when they were younger like a big white wedding, a honeymoon to Greece and Venice, a bigger house than her parents with grounds, rather than just a garden, some sort of career where she saved lives, and two children, a perfectly charming boy and a beautiful girl. He could not imagine any child of his being charming or beautiful, even with Lily as their mother.

He spent the night thinking it over. The scenario his mother suggested was the more likely outcome. Potter would apologize and charm Lily incessantly to win her over and get all the charges dropped. In the end he might not even need to marry her, just set her up in a quaint little cottage with a rose garden somewhere to raise his illegitimate child, and then she'd take his to an orphanage or drop it in a dumpster because the sight of it would be terribly offensive to her wealthy benefactor who'd stop by to shag her now and then behind his pureblooded wife's back.

Lily was not feeling much better than Severus at the Evans the next morning when Petunia had the nerve to look down her nose at her like she was a piece of rubbish. It was the potion that made her act like a depraved woman. Lily would have been perfectly happy to wait until her wedding night. Hogwarts offered little in the way of quality men so there was no chance of her getting carried away of her own free will while at school.

Although it would not be polite, Lily thought Petunia was begging for a solid jinx with the way she was lurking about. What did she expect to see? Lily was not even one week pregnant, so she wasn't even going to have morning sickness yet, if she had it at all. St. Mungo's had thrown a whole stack of pamphlets at her, and in her boredom, she had looked them over to see what was in store for her.

The most likely reason for her to get sick was choking down the new vitamins her mum had already bought for her. From the size of the pill, it looked like it came from a veterinary supply store, rather than the chemist. Lily had looked over the back of the bottle, and mum had already gotten some muggle information that was more scientific than the cartoonish wizard medical information with moving animations. St. Mungo's literature had made no mention at all about the importance of folic acid.

They had a surprise visitor about midmorning. Mrs. Snape came back for a second day in a row, ringing the front doorbell. Lily was amused by the very Severus look his mum gave Petunia, but then was disappointed when she preferred to speak to her mother alone. What could the two of them have in common to talk about?

Obviously Lily trying to hear what was being said was cramping Tunie's style. She was also attempting to eavesdrop, but there was only so much room outside at the swinging door that led into the kitchen. Either she had to stand next to Lily, or shove off because Lily was not above using her pointy elbow to do her talking.

Since there was so much silent elbowing and huffing at each other going on between the sisters, neither of them paid attention, and Mrs. Evans smacked the door into both of them when she came out.

"Why must the two of you still act like you are in primary school? Lily could you please come in here."

"Alright, mum."

Lily waited till her mother turned around to give Petunia a smirk of triumph.

Petunia's response was a dismissive pfft, as if she did not care in the slightest what was going to be discussed.

Mrs. Snape in all that black looked odd in their sunny kitchen.

"Sit down. Mrs. Snape had some suggestions she wished to present to me, before the two of us determined what you wanted to do."

Lily made a bit of a face. She was an adult, at least in the wizarding world, at seventeen. If there was something to discuss, no one needed to go to her mother first.

Eileen noticed the look of the girl's face. It was little wonder why she was such easy pickings for the wealthy boys at school.

"Would you want to return to Hogwarts on September first this year? Mind, you'd still be pregnant, and that will become more obvious as the months go on," her mother reminded her.

"But Prof. McGonagall said ..."

"We were both there," Mrs. Snape stated.

"I suppose. It's better than hanging around here for a year."

"You seem to lack purpose," Mrs. Snape observed. "Do you only want to return to Hogwarts because it is not as boring as home?"

"No, I want to finish my education. This is my last year. From what I was counseled for careers, I need to have a NEWT in something to get any sort of skilled employment."

"You'd prefer that over going to school here?" Mrs. Evans asked. "There are programs for adults and pregnant girls to finish their education. Not all of them are particularly bright, so you're lack of muggle schooling for the past few years may not be noticed."

"But I like magic, mum."

"Still?"

"Yes."

"Alright then," her mother pronounced.

Mrs. Snape then said, "Severus can marry you, then you can attend school."

"Severus?" Lily sputtered. "But … he's … I mean … why isn't he here?"

"I thought it best to consult with your mother first. Your parents may have already made alternate arrangements. There's also the chance that you'd tell him 'no', since you seem to get angry at him for the least of reasons."

"Least of reasons? He called me a mudblood."

"Did he apologize or not?" Mrs. Snape asked, then added, "He informed me that he was in the midst of being attacked by the very same boys that held you prisoner this past week? Wouldn't you have been in danger from them also, if you took Severus' side in that dispute? The two of you against the four of them, when Severus was already incapacitated."

"They … there was no need for him to call me names."

"So if you found his apology so insincere for calling you a mudblood, which is commonly used to refer to a muggleborn, then it's entirely possible that you'd decline his marriage proposal," Mrs. Snape explained.

"Even after all that Severus would marry me?" Lily inquired.

"He is not a completely insensitive lout, Evans. Severus realizes that you may want to attend Hogwarts this year, and your choices are limited, considering class starts in less than two weeks. There's Severus. Then there's Potter, your rapist and the father of your other child. Or the third possibility that you could already have someone else lined up to marry, who would not mind you having the children of two other men. Possibly with the intent of ridding yourself of them once they are born."

"What?"

"I meant an orphanage or something of that kind, not drowning them in a bucket."

"There's always the possibility that they'll find out the fertility potion I was given was not so bad, and they can take care of this at St. Mungo's."

"True," Mrs. Snape agreed. "There's always hope that the boys will admit what they did, and provide the source of the recipe, if they brewed it themselves. However, I was under the impression that they rarely told the truth, denied any wrongdoing, and made up fantastic tales of what really happened from their point of view."

For a angry woman that frequently argued with her even angrier husband, Lily did not like Mrs. Snape's way of summing up the situation.

"Lily, you only have a short period of time before Severus returns to school. How likely is it that these boys will confess when these police show up asking questions?" Mrs. Evans asked.

"This is serious. They have to tell the truth."

"Why?" Mrs. Snape asked.

"I'm pregnant."

"I think they knew of that risk when they used a fertility potion."

"I'd rather give it a few days, or maybe a week, before I uh … take a big step like getting married. You haven't even given me any details yet."

"Such as what? There's a marriage license that is easy enough to apply for at the Ministry, someone there can do the ceremony, then that's it. You then let Minerva McGonagall know that you've met that condition so you will be able to attend school."

Lily frowned. What about the white gown? Church? Brides maids? Cake? Rice throwing?

"I'll need to go over other details with your father," her mother informed her. "The Snapes will allow you to live at their home."

"What?"

"I can make Severus' bedroom a bit larger for the two of you and the children."

Lily was speechless. Live in Spinner's End at the Snapes? Her mother had to be kidding.

Mrs. Snape continued, "After the school year, or when you need to return home. There's no need for you to move in immediately. You'll be together at Hogwarts soon enough."

"Together?" Lily repeated.

"I'm not sure where they are located, but there are apartments for married students. When I attended there was one girl that married, but her husband was older. She was separated from the single students and he visited on weekends."

"I won't be in Gryffindor tower anymore?"

"Not in your condition."

"Uh, they put my due date at late May, early June."

"There's a charm to slow fetus growth. Not by much, but used to keep pregnant brides from getting too big prior to their wedding. If the healer thinks it is safe to use on you, it might be able to push your due date back to July or August. There's also the possibility that the slower growth can not be risked, but if you have them early enough, you can still take your NEWTs. You have a number of classes in common with Severus so he can share what occurs in them.

"Don't twins generally not last to full term since they crowd each other? I don't recall any mothers that I know having any."

Mrs. Evans commented, "I have heard that too."

There was so little time between now and September first that she really could end up married to Severus, and then Potter would laugh even more before sharing what he so cleverly did to her.

Lily was growing overwhelmed. What she wanted to do is find out where Potter lived and beat the potion recipe or whoever he bought it from out of him, and then stand over him laughing as he lay on the ground crying and spitting his teeth out.

"I think that perhaps I should write to Prof. McGonagall to verify this part about married students. It would seem a shame to go through so much trouble, just to be denied admittance," Lily reasoned. This would also give her at least a day or two to think this over. There had to be something easier than getting married. Mrs. Snape had a valid point that with already being pregnant, the top two candidates were the fathers of her children. Lily would rather go to prison for killing Potter, than marry him. No one in Azkaban would give a flying fig about her lack of NEWT scores.

Her father would also forbid her from living at Spinner's End, and she could convince her mother of what a terrible idea that was.

It was days before the auror office executed their simultaneous predawn raids on four houses, dispatching a couple extra aurors to the Potter house due to its size, and a dozen more with hit wizards as back up to Grimmauld Place.

The Lupins, including Remus who had returned home, were frightened but cooperated.

Pontius Pettigrew complained, "See here, I work at the Ministry, you can't ..." He changed his tune quickly as a probity probe was pointed in his direction, as he nervously warned, "watch where you're waving that."

At the Blacks, the door was not promptly answered so the aurors got to work on cracking through the defensive spells preventing them from entering and executing their authorized duties to search the premises for dark objects, magic, and muggle artifact misuse based suspicions due to the testimony of numerous young ladies along with evidence provided by St. Mungo's of dark magic being used on their persons. So far, their investigation uncovered that contraceptive charms were used on all the females except for Lily Evans. Undoubtedly, she was singled out due to being the only muggleborn victim.

Eventually Sirius' father, Orion cracked open a upper story window and demanded to know why his home was being assaulted by members of the Ministry. His denial that his son was no longer residing at Twelve Grimmauld Place meant little since students habitually stayed at their schoolmates' homes for a week or two over the summer holiday. Obviously, Orion Black had something to hide and the aurors renewed their efforts to breach the multi-storied townhouse.

In Godric's Hollow, Sirius awoke when he heard the pounding on the front door. He considered the Potters more of a family than his own, and stealthily crept to the top of the stairs with his wand in hand to listen to what was happening and join in any defense. Overhearing an auror mention that potion to James' parents, he slunk back to his bedroom, grabbed the book out of his trunk along with his broom, and after casting a detection charm through his window to verify the coast was clear, slid over the ledge, closed the window, and charmed the manual lock to the locked position, and jumped on his broom to get the book away from here and destroy it. The Potters did not deserve to be punished for one of their pranks.

Mr. and Mrs. Potter had nothing to hide. They had never used the Dark Arts, detested anyone that used them, and were positive their James felt the same way. Someone had falsely accused them, and they expected to be vindicated.

When his mother woke him, James blinked and then asked, "What time is it? And why are you in here, mum, instead of Crispy?"

"The house elves are confined to the kitchen. Aurors are searching the house."

"What?"

"We've been accused of using Dark Arts."

"Us? Never."

"That's what I told them, but they had a copy of a letter from you. Did you ever write to the head girl and tell her she was to meet you at that house we rented for you and your friends?"

"Yeah, but I did not put any spells on it to force her to come."

"Did you write that your father and I would be there?"

"Well, if you knew her, you'd know why. I didn't lie to her once she got there, and since she can apparate as well as any of us, she could have left at any time."

"Did you give her any potions?"

"I never gave her any potions," James asserted, speaking the absolute truth. "Why would I? She's my girlfriend. It's great. I'm head boy and she's head girl. You'll like her ..."

"I doubt that very much," Mrs. Potter announced with an air of finality. "You have to realize Jamie that you are very well off compared to others. You can't let some skirt that gives you a friendly smile take advantage of you. I'll sort this out, but I want you to have nothing further to do with her. Ignore her as much as possible, and I'll be contacting the headmaster about what sort of hussy he chose to be head girl. Mark my words."

"What are you talking about?"

"She's trying to take advantage of you, but your father and I won't stand for it. You're much too sweet a boy to have to be burdened with this. It's a cruel world out there, and it's people like this that are out to make a quick galleon without any regard for others," she explained on her way out of his bedroom to get her husband up to speed so they could refute this wild accusation.

James pondered the nonsense his mother spouted for a couple moments before looking at the time. It wasn't even six yet. What was so darned important that she had to wake him so early to ask questions about his letter? There was no Dark Arts in that letter, and it wasn't a crime to lie and say his parents were going to be there when they weren't. Maybe he'd pop round to the shop later and get some flowers delivered to Evans. She had to realize he was not one to write pages pouring his heart out in a sappy letter. He'd see her soon enough, and with that thought he turned over and dozed off.

Later that morning, when the Potters received the letter from Hogwarts simply stating that their James was no longer Head Boy, they had had absolutely enough of these lies. Bad enough to send aurors to their house to search it which had turned out to be a total waste of the Ministry's time, but now this harpy was trying to ruin their son's good name.

They had been prepared to offer her a modest sum, actually quite generous considering she had purposely taken fertility potion before seducing their poor innocent Jamie, but there was no way this scheming shrew was going to weasel her way into their family. She was entirely unsuitable with this total lack of manners and morals.

Without delay, they set off to Hogwarts to discuss this with the headmaster. Sometimes Albus Dumbledore was too soft-hearted. Without a doubt it was hard to believe this sort of thing was going on, but he had to be made aware of the facts, rather than having some weeping trollop spreading lies about their son.

Minerva happened to be in her office when Albus flooed to say the Potters had shown up. She joined him, and for the life of her, she had to admit some of the paranoia Eileen Snape had expressed regarding the wealth and expected privileges regarding certain wizarding families seemed well founded from the way the Potters carried on. Their son must have learned how to lie and deny any sort of responsibility for his deeds in the crib. Minerva could not think of a single Gryffindor family that had this sort of audacity. Slytherins … well, Slytherins understood how to bluff, lie, and get others so twisted about that no one could tell fact from fiction. It was a game to them. This however was no game.

Frustrated by the lack of humanity and understanding from the Potters, Albus finally raised his voice to be heard by them over their squabbling with Minerva. From the look in her eyes, the thinness of her lips, and the sheer stubbornness that the two of them faced from the Potters, they were going to be lucky to leave here without getting a lesson or two from Minerva if he did not put a stop to this.

"I am a member of the Wizengamot so I am aware of the case that is being put together by Magical Law Enforcement and the Auror office against Messrs. Potter, Black, Pettigrew and Lupin, since they are also students here at Hogwarts and attacked a number of other students over summer break. The facts are that nineteen female and one male victim have been identified. The young ladies were all invited to the lovely vacation home you had rented and then turned over to four seventeen year olds to do as they liked. All the young ladies confirmed they acted in an unusual, uncharacteristic and immoral manner while in that house. All of them were tested at St. Mungo's, and it was professionally confirmed they all imbibed some sort of dark fertility potion that may be used in case of an unwilling or nervous bride, but since it removes the drinker's will is considered to be illegal.

"Only Messrs. Potter, Black, Pettigrew and Lupin benefited from the use of this potion, and were also the ones that invited the young ladies to the house."

"They are not the only ones that benefitted," Mrs. Potter retorted. "What about this girl that claims she is pregnant with our James' child? There is no way we are going to allow her to sink her hooks into him and try to pressure him into marrying that sort of girl."

Minerva's brogue was thick as she speculated, "Whoever claimed that Miss Evans desired to marry her rapist?"

"James would never rape anyone. You just told us it was a dark potion, and an auror said she would not be able to take any action other than carrying the child to term unless the source of the potion was found so St. Mungo's can evaluate the possibility of other options."

Albus calmly clarified, "Miss Evans became a married woman yesterday. There is no need for you to protest any schemes on her part since there never were any."

"Married? To who?"

"Is that of any importance?"

"It most certainly is," Mr. Potter declared. "That woman is pregnant with our grandchild. What if he's an unfit father?"

Unable to bear it any longer, Minerva shouted, "Can't the two of you give it a rest? Is there no nit you won't pick? A moment ago you wanted nothing to do with the child and insulted the victim of a crime unmercilessly. The potion was so insidious that it causes the imbiber to seek out any wizard. After your son was finished with her, he tossed her aside while she still was under its influence and was overwhelmed by the craving it caused within her. In a denser magically populated area, this would have been a disaster, but luckily the victim lives near only one other wizard so did not feel the need to travel further. That is who she married, the father of her second child, you pompous windbags."

"What kind of wizard takes advantage of someone under that kind of compulsion?" Mrs. Potter argued, not ready to let this matter rest.

"Your son did it knowingly along with his closest mates."

Ignoring McGonagall's outburst, Mr. Potter appealed directly to the headmaster's sense of fair play, "You hear this? She is obviously prejudiced against our son. If you don't dismiss her, I'll take this to the Board of Governors."

"I'd relish it," Minerva replied, even though she was not the one being addressed.

"If that's the case, I was willing to let the young men be considered innocent till proven guilty, but if there's this matter with a dispute with a staff member, I suppose that I shall have to suspend the students involved till the Board can hear it. Let me see ..." Albus muttered, while flipping through a desk calendar, " … the Board's next meeting is scheduled for April 20th. Is that convenient for you?"

"April? We're not waiting till April."

"If there's students in jeopardy, they can convene an emergency session. Are you threatening the lives of any students?"

"We most certainly are not."

"Well, shall we consider James suspended till April when your complaint about Prof. McGonagall's unprofessional conduct against him be heard? Looking at his record, which I happen to have here," Albus indicated a magically expanded folder that contained over two feet of stacked parchment. "It seems academically, Potter is doing quite well in Transfiguration. Are you disputing that his marks in that course should be perfect? He did not receive a perfect score on his OWL, which was not graded by Prof. McGonagall. Additionally, other staff have set more punishments than her. Do you wish their names to file complaints against them also?"

"We are not going to play some game with you, Dumbledore," Mr. Potter threatened. "Our son was chosen head boy."

"My opinion is that your son is not head boy and will not represent Hogwarts as its head boy. I am currently headmaster, and it is my opinion that matters on this. Of course, if he is suspended till April, he would not be beginning his seventh year until next September so you have the option to bring this up with your original complaint to the Board to have me removed as headmaster so your son could be head boy next year, if he receives the recognition from the remaining staff that you think he deserves."

"How can you do this to him? He's just a boy." Mrs. Potter appealed.

Minerva sighed in exasperation. These might be the biggest two knobs she had the misfortune of meeting, and she had seen a lot of dull students who could not grasp even the most rudimentary concept of transfiguration.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

~~~~~~~ September 1st ~~~~~~~

Lily awoke on September first and stared at the two rings on her left hand. She had agreed to marry Severus, and his mother supplied the opal and platinum ring for her to wear. Then following the brief words said at the Ministry, another ring appeared on her finger. Lily thought this plain band was also platinum since it was the same silvery color as the other ring. She wondered if there was ever cases where the wedding band that was created looked dissimilar to the engagement ring.

Severus had a similar band appear on his left hand. He had appeared sort of dazed to Lily's eyes. He hardly said anything, but with his parents along, there was excellent reason not to.

She had to agree with her dad that the license bureau at the Ministry of Magic still had a bureaucratic look and feel, even if there were owls fluttering about clutching memos. Actually, that was pretty disgusting to use owls indoors. Having an owl crap a big wet one onto the counter was the best part of their visit in Petunia's eyes.

Prof. McGonagall had met them there, and signed the document as one of the witnesses. Lily hoped that she was there in support of her student, rather than to ensure that they were actually married.

Since then, Lily had seen more of Mrs. Snape than she had of Severus. She was still living with her family. Severus was in Spinner's End. Today though, they would start living together at Hogwarts.

There had been a list of instructions from Prof. McGonagall. Married students had another set of rules. Lily thought it was annoying because she was not going to infect single students with some sort of marriage bug.

They were not to take the train from Platform 9¾, but were told to arrive at the school gates at two o'clock. Prof. McGonagall wrote that she would meet them there and show them to their apartment.

The two of them were not allowed to invite students to their rooms, nor were they to linger in their house common rooms. They were allowed to go to their house entrances and inquire after students for academic reasons. Lily was not certain if this was actually a measure to prevent her from marching into Gryffindor tower and slapping Potter across the face repeatedly. A skit on telly gave her the idea that a frying pan would be perfect for this task, so she would not hurt her hand.

For reasons only known to the headmaster, the four rapists would be attending school, but Potter was no longer head boy. Lily doubted he even cared about the position as long as he was quidditch captain.

She was no longer head girl nor a prefect, and that hurt. Lily had been proud of achieving both distinctions.

There were limited kitchen facilities in their apartment, and they were allowed to order and eat regular school meals there also. Prof. McGonagall advised them that they should eat dinner with their houses in the Great Hall frequently, but did not mention breakfast or lunch.

All this was going to take some getting used to. Hopefully, it did not turn into some sort of imprisonment or punishment. It would force her to get to know Severus better, or at least what his personal habits were. There was a lot she did not know about him. At least now, he could hardly do anything with those horrible boys. By that, she meant the Slytherins. She'd join him in destroying the Marauders. It would no longer be four on one, but two avengers fighting for retribution and for younger students' sanity against four bullies. Lily had been giving a few charms some thought, and was beginning to think with a little work to adapt them, there would be nowhere those four could hide from them in Hogwarts.

Severus, on the other hand, was laying in bed, not planning anything. The wedding band was still on his hand and Thursday, September 1, 1977, had finally arrived. Later today, he would be alone with Lily and find out whether she chose to tolerate or ignore him, and to what degree she loathed him.

He had already given this marriage to Lily Evans too much thought without determining what she had in mind. Severus had not romanced, wooed, impressed or in any way swept Lily off her feet as he so often dreamed of doing. He was convenient for now, and she could leave him later. They'd still be married, but that meant little. She could see who she wanted, talk to who she wanted, and live with who she wanted once this year had passed.

His concept of the babies was vague. Severus knew what they sounded like from living in close proximity to so many other families. He had seen partially clothed, filthy toddlers in the street or eating dirt in their gardens. Even when he was a child, other children were not interesting, till he started spying on Lily.

There was a range of possibilities regarding them. There was always the chance that now that Lily had gone through and married someone, Potter could laugh uproariously and decide to reveal that the potion he used was not particularly harmful to the health of the imbibers. Severus fully expected him to do that sometime between now and whenever the Ministry got around to actually doing something to those four, which may be never.

If the information came too late for Lily to get rid of them, she could give birth to them, and leave them with him in Spinner's End. Although, Severus suspected she'd only leave his ugly baby behind after falling in love with Potter's chubby-faced, precious cherub.

He had fallen into such a deep funk that he did not hear his mother till she screamed, "What are you doing laying there like a bloody, listless lump of glue?"

Mother was in his doorway with her hands on her scrawny hips.

"What would you like me to assist you with?"

"Me? It's you that need the sodding help. What have you done so far today?"

"Everything was already done, if you are referring to my preparation to return to school."

Severus did not know what about that truthful phrase set mother off, but she screamed and shouted insults and directions at him. Most of what she was saying was nonsensical such as his toe nails were sharpened to points, comparing them to kneazle claws. Why would he sharpen his finger or toe nails? That was more likely to do injury to himself, rather than someone else.

They had planned to apparate from Lily's back garden. There was a spot near the potting shed that was difficult to see, even when someone was in the yard with them.

Lily did not like Severus' attitude when she saw him. He was hanging in the back of the yard, looking towards the privet hedge, rather than at her or the house, with his shoulders rounded and slumped, while their mothers talked over something.

She was sort of annoyed that Sev's mother now took an interest in him, rather than years ago. Lily would keep writing her mother of her opposition to move to Spinner's End. Perhaps she could get some more details out of Severus about everything that was wrong there. She'd go mad if she had to eat cabbage soup more than once a week. Months at Hogwarts would give her and mum time to work on wearing down her father.

Lily could tell her dad did not like the Snapes, but he was not as vociferous as Petunia. He was more disappointed in her than blaming Severus' family. He explained they could have simply shrugged their shoulders and blamed the Evans for raising either an ignorant idiot or an ill-bred tramp.

She went over to see what Sev was brooding over. "So, today's the big day," she murmured as she got close to him.

His shoulder twitched and he replied, "I guess."

Going around to the front of him, Lily asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Your hair's in your face, Sev."

"Hmm," was his response as he took out his wand. He nonverbally cast episkey on his sore nose.

"What'd you cast?"

"Lily," he replied tiredly, "mother has been screaming at me for four hours. Can you wait to talk after we get to Hogwarts?"

She glanced at Mrs. Snape who was talking in a hushed tone to her mum. That was strange. She knew that Sev said for years that his parents argued loudly, but Lily had not witnessed it yet. She did not doubt that they could, however it may not be as often as Sev led her to believe.

After they nodded their understanding that the apparition point for Hogwarts was outside the gates, not too close, and on the road that led to Hogsmeade, they left home.

Lily's spin and apparition left her facing away from the gates, but on the road at least. She turned and saw Severus was looking back over his shoulder at her. He was about ten feet from the gates and facing them. Show off.

She joined him and said, "It's not quite two yet."

"As long as we're not home, I don't care."

"Was it bad?"

He shrugged, "I don't know. It always seems bad to me, but Hogwarts is like that too at times."

Not sure how happy Severus was to be married to her, Lily put her hand on his back and said, "We're together now, Sev."

Severus was not reassured by that. They had been together their first day at Hogwarts, on the train, in the boat, walking into the Great Hall for the first time, and then 'Evans, Lily' was called by Prof. McGonagall. Lily was probably still in a good mood since she was finally back at Hogwarts after a frightful month of being held prisoner and the unwanted results of that.

A dark grey striped tabby cat was bounding towards the gate with her tail held high. She waited till she was at the gate before transforming back into herself.

Prof. McGonagall addressed the students, "Right on time I see."

"Yes, professor," Lily replied.

On their way up to the castle, Prof. McGonagall repeated their instructions about living separately from the rest of the students. Lily asked questions and gave examples to ascertain the full extant of their limitations. Severus was not interested. Lily did not want him around Slytherins any more than absolutely necessary. He knew that had not changed. Perhaps at some point Lily would be willing to discuss her need to approve who he spoke to, when she fraternized with whomever she chose.

He also knew they were not to engage in altercations with four particular Gryffindors. Their rights were not to be infringed upon until they were judged guilty, and then their punishment was to be set by a court and judge, not them. That was something Severus never expected to happen, so he would need to wait and plan.

Severus did like that the hidden corridor that led to their apartment was on the fourth floor. It was convenient to the library. The Marauders had too many hiding spots between there and the Slytherin dungeons, and knew it was likely that he would remain in the library till closing. He had allied with some other Slytherins who stayed late in the library, Wilkes, Rosier, Crouch and Black's younger brother, to return to their common room in a group. Although Severus was their favorite prey, he was far from the only student the Marauders molested.

The apartment seemed fine to him, but Lily waited till Prof. McGonagall had left them to make some comments, "There's no windows."

In a castle this large, interior rooms existed. He did not even think Lily was one to spend much time looking out a window.

"It's like one big room," she continued, "except the loo, of course."

At least Lily recognized it was big. The fireplace was nowhere as big as ones in the Slytherin common room, but they had no need to have one large enough to roast a herd of steer. This one could still fit a cow comfortably with its head still attached. Around the grate, there was two chairs, a long sofa opposite it, and a table in the middle all on a area rug that delineated that as a separate area.

There was also a round rug underneath the small table that was for eating, since it was next to area in the far right corner that contained the stove, a sink and a couple counters atop drawered cabinets. There were more cabinets overhead.

The last area to the left of the entrance had a plush carpet beneath a bed that was a nice size for both of them, if they shared it. There were two matching bureaus. Those were large.

Lily was looking in the armoire closet, and did not even turn to talk to him as she declared, "I don't know. I don't see how it would be big enough for both of us, if we unpack completely, unless I shrink stuff down, but then that makes things harder to find …"

He was not too worried about the closet. He could put his things in the drawers, and she could have the entire thing, dreading taking the blame when she could not locate some shrunken object.

Seveus went into the bathroom. It looked alright. Toilet, sink, tub and a mirror for Lily. He then gave it a second scrutinizing scan. There was a cabinet concealed by the mirror over the sink, there was a cabinet with room to put more things under the sink and there were shelves along the tub wall. There was plenty of space in here. He had a toothbrush, tooth powder, a hair brush and soap. Lily probably had twice as many items, but she could have her choice of where she'd like to keep them.

Lily found Severus standing in the midst of the bathroom. It was alright. The prefects' bath was much nicer.

She commented, "Not much, huh?"

Realizing he was not seeing what Lily was seeing, he chose to agree with, "You're a better judge of this sort of thing."

Lily sighed, then asked, "So how do you want to do this? Divide the space up and try to squeeze what we have into our halves?"

"I don't have so much, especially in here. I could even carry it with me, when I come in. How about you just tell me which drawers I may use, and then I'll get out of your way for a while."

"Drawers? What about that closet?"

"I don't have a lot of clothing, and I'm not sure what else you'd expect me to have to put in the closet, except my trunk. The trunk can be shrunk down, once I get all my books out of it."

After he expressed no preference to which dresser he'd prefer, Lily thought she would prefer being closer to the bath for both her dresser and sleeping, so Sev would be closer to the outside, well outside to the rest of the school, door.

She was in the midst of charming her items into place when Severus interrupted her. "There's no desks or book shelves. Should I put my textbooks on top of my bureau for now, or would you prefer them elsewhere?"

Lily gave the room a good look and realized that he was right, and there were no desks. They may be married but both of them still were students. She had eight NEWT level classes.

Even though Prof. McGonagall said to only call a house elf if it was necessary, they were obviously missing desks so she called Mindy, the name she was given.

A house elf popped into their quarters, and asked, "Yes, missus?"

The corner of Lily's lip lifted, but she calmed herself. House elves only did what they were told.

"Mindy?"

"Yes, missus."

"Severus and I both have a lot of courses and expect a lot of homework. Could two desks be added to this room?"

"Where, missus?"

Turning to Severus, she asked, "Where would you like them, Sev? We'd need good light. Should I see if they have desk lamps too?"

"Could a chair be removed from next to the fire? Are we ever going to eat here?"

"Of course we'll have some meals alone, Sev," she replied, then told Mindy, "Take the two chairs from next to the fireplace, we can't have guests so we don't need them. Um, maybe if ..." Lily took her wand and charmed the table over to the center of the room. It did not have to be next to the kitchen section. "How about you bring us two desks, two chairs and two desk lamps? I'll move everything around."

Disapprovingly, the house elf replied, "Mmmm, might be too crowded, missus."

"Not without those chairs, and see ..." Lily moved the couch to the side of the fireplace, "I can move all the other furniture. We're both still students and have a lot of classes. We'll need desks." What did they expect them to do? Do homework in bed? Maybe with a regular muggle notepad and pen, but Lily wouldn't want to do it with parchment, a quill and a bottle of ink. She could use some board or a book under the parchment, but that open bottle of ink would be worrisome, even if she kept it on her bedside table.

"I can use the table," Severus reminded her. He had not thought that his question about where he was allowed to leave his books would turn into such a problem. His intent was to not upset Lily by leaving his things where she did not want them.

"Alright," Lily conceded, then told Mindy, "One good-sized desk, a chair to go with it, and a lamp for it."

After the elf was gone, Lily indicated, "If one of us needs to stay up late, I'll put it on the other side of the room. Okay?"

"Fine."

"Oh," Lily exclaimed, and stepped over to him.

"What?"

"I didn't kiss you yet."

Severus looked confused, but Lily lifted herself on her toes anyway and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

"Why did you do that?"

"Sev," Lily called playfully as she turned to go back to the closet, "stop being so weird."

She was the one being weird. Then he considered from the tone of her muttering about her shoes as she shifted her belongings around that she was perplexed by the lack of space in the closet, or more exactly her perception regarding the lack of space. Perhaps the kiss was her way of preparing to ask for his portion of the closet, which he did not need. Severus shrunk his empty trunk and stowed it in his drawer.

Lily did not see how this was going to work without crushing her dress robes and uniforms, unless she kept her other clothes in her trunk. The lighting was bad in here so unless she cast a charm she could only see two rows deep of her shoes, but there was room behind them for more shoes, or perhaps they could store their trunks in the back, but then if she kept clothes in her trunk, it would be inconvenient.

Turning to Severus, she asked, "How about you get your stuff in the closet so I can see how everything fits?"

"I don't need any room in the closet."

"What? What about your robes? They'll get wrinkled in the drawer."

"Not much, and I can charm that out. They stay in my trunk for the summer and look fine now."

Lily looked at the robes that he had on. Sev already had on his Slytherin uniform. He had it on when he met her at her house. He had not changed. Lily remembered how he could not wait to change his clothes that first day on the train.

"If you're sure … but will you need more drawer space?" Lily had charmed her other things to her dresser, and used every drawer in hers.

"No, I'm fine."

"What about your shoes? Do you want to keep them ..."

"I already put my boots in the drawer with my trunk."

Unable to believe that Severus fit everything into one chest of drawers, she went over and opened a drawer to look to see if he forced everything to fit. Then she opened the next one, and the one below that, then finished looking in the rest.

"What?" he asked. Why was Lily checking his ability to unpack a trunk? Having the entire closet to herself should be considered a bonus.

"Where's all your stuff?"

"That's it. What other stuff are you looking for?"

Lily opened the top two drawers where he had his uniforms, giving one full drawer to his trousers so the legs were only folded over once.

"Your other clothes. You have your uniforms in two drawers, then below that your clothes from home, then your underwear and socks, and then your shrunk trunk, boots, and I guess your homework. Where's the rest?"

"What rest?"

"Don't you have any other robes? Where's your dress robes?"

"I don't have any."

"What do you wear …?" Lily let her question die off. At Hogwarts, she saw Severus in his school uniform. At home, he wore a collection of ill-fitting things that Petunia enjoyed belittling. Even if she was pretending she did not see Severus, she could list everything he wore from head to toe that day, the visible part that is. Tunie never saw his old, grey underpants. Thinking of that, Lily reopened that drawer, glanced in it just long enough to ascertain that every undergarment he had was no longer white and was threadbare where there weren't holes, and then closed it.

"For what?" he asked, not sure where Lily wanted to go that he'd need some other clothing.

"I was being silly. Wizards don't even need trainers since their idea of sport is quidditch."

Considering that Lily had already ascertained he did not use all his drawers, Severus suggested, "You can have the top two drawers, if you need them, Lily."

When Lily decided to make a face rather than answering, he amended his offer, "Or the bottom two drawers. They are all the same size."

The bureau came up to his chest, so perhaps Lily would prefer the bottom. However, she could just be waiting for something to seize upon to start some dispute.

Lily was considering the bleakness of their financial situation. Severus was used to having next to nothing so might see anything other than the barest minimum as wasteful. She couldn't ask her parents for money. Mum had given her some for necessities, as she called them. Then dad had also slipped her some additional money, but they'd eventually reveal it to each other. Lily could not write the Snapes and demand they buy Severus some decent things either.

With a huff, Lily replied, "Let me see, Sev. I might have enough room, if you really want to forfeit closet space? Did you want to put your things away in the lav, while I finished this?"

"I can keep that here too," he replied. Lily had a bunch of bottles and other items piled on her dresser top.

"No, go 'head. You don't have that much, I don't even think I saw ..." Lily was already back in his dresser, to pick out the items she meant, "not much. A toothbrush, what's this stuff? Powder?" To satisfy her curiosity, Lily opened his container of tooth powder. "Uh, you can, I mean I can share my toothpaste, if you'd prefer that. This looks kind of irritating. So uh, your toothbrush, hairbrush, and soap … where's the rest of your stuff?"

"Like what?" Severus asked. With water added to the soap, it worked to get him clean.

"Shaving kit?" she suggested, not quite sure how to bring up the subject of shampoo.

"I use a charm."

Lily nodded, "You must be pretty good at it since you never went too far, huh?"

"Far?" he repeated. What was Lily talking about? He knew he was not as hirsute as others, but did Lily prefer something else? He did not even think she saw much of him exposed when … oh, never mind, there was that time by the lake after the Defense OWL. Lily did not like the way he looked … well, what did he expect? No one liked the way he looked. Severus did not even like the way he looked.

"Never mind," she muttered. After picking on whatever tooth powder was, which may explain the color of Sev's teeth, she'd have to wait to find a way to suggest that he try some of her shampoo.

"Let me finish with my things and then I'll uh … I don't know."

Severus sensed he was disappointing Lily's need for an argument. Why would she think he cared about where she allowed him keep his belongings? In the dungeons, he kept them in his trunk. He could still do that, if she wanted every bit of storage space to herself. He could even charm his trunk to flatten so he could slide it under the bed so she wouldn't trip over it.

He could not help his urge to be irritating and offered, "May I help you with anything, Lily?"

She waved her wand to get the time, then suggested, "If we don't have anything for tea, can you call the house elf and order it, Sev?"

Severus went to look at their kitchen and opened the cabinets. They had pots, dishes, cups, drinking glasses and utensils, but no food. There was enough room to store food. Among the items in the cabinet was a kettle and a ceramic pot, if they wanted to make their own tea one afternoon. For now though, calling the house elf to bring the tea for water he boiled seemed pointless so he summoned Mindy and requested tea for two.

He suggested to Lily, "I could go to the kitchen after tea for some items to keep up here."

Lily's mouth twisted, Prof. McGonagall did say they could have some meals up here, but she wasn't sure about that tiny, old-fashioned stove that looked like someone liberated it from a doll house. There was no dishwasher either, but Lily could study up on household charms. Severus could too. She'd have to talk to him about that sort of thing. He should not expect her to do everything while he sat around … reading. It's not like he had a job. In fact, she worked just as hard as he did here at Hogwarts. More in fact, since she would have been head girl, if Potter hadn't thought ruining her life would be hilarious.

That wasn't Sev's fault. If it was not for him, or his parents, she was not sure which, and still needed to talk to him about that also, she'd be at home, and he'd be on the Hogwarts Express with his mates, instead of listening to her whing about having enough room for her shoes in this dinky closet.

Severus had no idea why Lily was looking at him like that. Was he supposed to go on his own, without even inquiring as to what she'd prefer him to procure? "Or together, if you don't trust me to pick out the right things."

"I don't know, Sev. This is ..." she waved her hands, "a bit much right now. Um, I think I want to keep both chairs," she indicated before moving them closer to the small table near the fireplace with her wand.

"Alright."

"I still need to change before the feast. But there's time for that, I guess," Lily then added a sigh to the end of what she was saying. What was going to happen at the feast? She had written her girlfriends to say she would not be on the train, but had not given them any details. Married to Severus Snape was hard to write in just a few words.

Severus remained cautious through tea and on their walk to visit the kitchens to obtain a few items. The elves tried to give them plenty more and offered to deliver it, but it seemed premature for them to take much. The house elves might also have confused them with someone else since they were offering a ridiculous amount of food. Severus was not sure if it was called a side of beef, but it appeared to be half a cow split lengthwise, minus the head and tail.

They settled on what Lily considered to be the staples. Tea, milk, sugar, bread, butter and biscuits. Severus had hoped that something of substance would be acquired, but that sort of planned that he would eat some meals upstairs rather than the Great Hall. Perhaps that's not what Lily wanted to do, but somehow failed to consider she'd want him to eat at the Slytherin table and do absolutely no talking. That was something they were going to have to discuss. If Lily would prefer to eat in the Great Hall with her friends, he would like to avoid antagonizing the Slytherins by appearing to snub them. Simply because they no longer had ample opportunity to attack him while he slept or in the baths, did not mean he was immune to their jinxes, hexes and curses the rest of the day.

Since she had not discussed much with Severus, Lily decided to change into her uniform in the loo.

While in there, she muttered to herself that she needn't have hidden in here since they were married, however this was yet another thing she needed to discuss with Severus before she started … doing anything. It really would have been useful to get to speak to him at home.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

**Chapter 6 **

In Godric's Hollow, James briefly thought it a shame that he did not get around to sending flowers to Evans since he saw her a couple weeks ago. His mum and dad might think they didn't like her, but that's because they hadn't met her. He didn't know what the big deal was. So he was no longer head boy. Who cared? Gryffindor head boys had a history of being total losers. Look at Frank Longbottom. He didn't even play quidditch.

Maybe he could have Evans round for the Christmas or Easter holiday. By then, Evans … no, no, Lily, ah yes, Lily, like the flower … would probably suffer terribly if she could not see him for days at a time. Yup, yup. But now he had flowers for her, and could give them to her on the Hogwarts Express, in front of the other girls, so they'd get all jealous and Lily would be immensely pleased with him, and forget all about him not getting around to writing. He'd tell her this evening either during the feast while she sat next to him, or in the common room, yeah, in the common room, on a comfy chair by the fire with her cooing and squirming on his lap, that he was not angry with her. Then she'd be really happy with him, and they could snog, maybe go for a walk, maybe outside, and then get better reacquainted.

"Oi!" Sirius yelled, breaking James out of his steamy daydream, full of snogging and shagging. "You ready?"

"Yeah. Hey, what do you think about these?"

Seeing Prongs take out of his trunk and hold up a ridiculously large bouquet of red roses and white lilies, Sirius fluttered his eyes, fanned his face furiously with his hand, and sniffled, "Oh, you shouldn't have, Prongs. This is all happening so fast! You've made me the happiest girl in the whole world."

"Stop being an ass. These aren't for you."

"You cad. What about all the promises you made me? Don't I mean anything to you? No one will ever love you the way I do, James."

"I don't need to listen again to all the breakup lines you've gotten over the past week, Padfoot."

"I thought that last one was pretty swell," Sirius said with more than a trace of pride in his voice. "So who's the lucky lady that gets to be your quidditch slut for the month?"

"No! These are for Evans."

"Evans? Are you mad? Didn't you hear … oh that's right, you were probably deafened by the foul-mouthed salutation like the rest of Godric's Hollow … the howler from my dear mother? Evans didn't just send aurors here, but to my parents' … actually, I should be the one giving her flowers. Give me those."

"No, Evans is mine. What about MacDonald? That way we can double date."

Sirius rolled his eyes at the absurdity of that concept. "The real reason I came in here, was to get you to stop standing in front of the mirror, fixing your hair, so we could floo down to London. We have a train to catch, you brain numbed moron."

"I am not brain numbed."

"Don't think I didn't notice your lights lit late at night while you furiously scribbled out rolls of homework. You are going to try to impress her in class, aren't you? You're gonna go all Ravenclaw on us. What next? Pick up after yourself in the common room?"

"That'll be the day," James laughed while stowing away the bouquet.

At King's Cross, James still had ideas whirling about his head because he had every intention of being so charming and so forgiving to Evans, no Lily, he'd be back into Lily's knickers by that evening. First off, he got rid of his parents. They were still hot and bothered over their party at the vacation cottage. Evans did not have to react by making some wild claim that dark magic was used on her. It was only a bit of shagging. It was bound to happen sooner or later that James would dissolve the sticking charm keeping her legs together.

"Do you see her?"

"No."

Barely a minute later, James asked again, "Do you see her?"

"No … Oi," Sirius called out to get someone's attention on the platform.

"Padfoot. Prongs. Uh hi," Remus greeted them. He did not know where things stood between them since the fiasco with getting his house searched by an auror for dark arts. They had only written back that it had happened at their homes too.

"Have you seen Evans?"

"Uh, maybe you should not cause any further trouble, James."

"Yeah, _James_."

"What was that for_, Sirius_? That's really my name."

"I didn't mean that. Wasn't that what Evans was calling you?"

"Yeah," James agreed with a goofy grin.

"You didn't tell her about me, did you?" Remus asked.

"I hadn't gotten around to that yet, Moony. There's only so many hours in the day, and I'd rather take that time to talk about me, rather than you. Alright?"

"Sounds like there was a lot more shagging than there was talking then," Sirius quipped. "Hey, I got an idea. How about I mess with Wormtail on the train? I'm going to flip a coin and claim it's heads each time. You go along with it."

"Why would you do that?" Remus asked. Each time to him meant this flipping would occur more than once.

"For a laugh."

"Hey, there's Wormtail now."

James called, but Sirius' repeated "Oi" got Peter's attention.

Before anything else was said, James called, "Wormtail, have you seen Evans?"

"Evans?" Peter exclaimed. "She got me probity probed!"

"And I'm sure you loved every second of it," Sirius laughed.

"I did not. Oh, why you looking for her? What are we going to do to get even?"

"Even?" James repeated. "I don't get even with my girlfriend. You don't get even with my girlfriend either."

Peter's mouth had dropped open at the first mention of girlfriend, then he uttered, "Huh?"

Sirius snidely commented, "Prongs thinks Evans got a golden snitch in her pussy."

Peter laughed. Remus scowled since he thought Evans had been pretty decent to him over the years, prior to sending an auror to his house.

"Don't talk about her like that."

"Well, it's getting late. Let's go clear a compartment," Sirius said, already heading for the train.

"Towards the front. Evans is head girl," James reminded them.

"Aren't you head boy?" Remus asked.

"Nah, I didn't want the job," James replied dismissively. "It would get in the way of quidditch. I have to concentrate on training if England's going to get the cup next year."

Unnecessarily, Peter added his agreement, "Yeah, Moony."

Annoyed at Peter acting like he was dumb, Remus had a passing thought that perhaps Wormtail could have been probity probed a bit more thoroughly.

Although they were chastised by two prefects separately, the Marauders cleared out a compartment of second year boys within sight of the prefect compartment. It did not take much since the second years knew first-hand what the Gryffindors were capable of.

As the last one pushed his trunk down the corridor, Peter landed a kick squarely on the seat of his pants and laughed, "Move it, tubby."

He then followed it with a couple stinging hexes while he chortled in glee over how much he loved going back to school, when Felicity Forehead, her real name forgotten since she was a cow of a Ravenclaw with an unfortunate hairstyle that accentuated her freakish head, yelled, "What the hell are you doing, Pettigrew?"

He turned to look, even struck an innocent pose with his hand to his chest to inquire if she had the right person, and asked, "Who me?"

"Why are you attacking another student?"

"What do you care?" Sirius yelled back at her. "Pipe down, or you'll get some of that too, Formidable Forehead."

"Maybe we should sit down," Remus reminded them which was unnecessary now that the train jerked into motion.

"My name is Fortesque, you mangy cur. I'm head girl, and I'm telling you to get in your seats and keep quiet for the entire trip."

"You're not head girl," James denied vehemently.

"Shut your haggis hole, Potter, and sit your bloody arse on a seat," yelled a male voice.

James' mouth dropped open as his eyes zeroed in on the head boy badge on Evan Rosier's chest. They made a Slytherin head boy? Where was the justice in that?

"We'll sit down when we're good and ready, Roserear," Sirius replied and then shot a jelly leg jinx under James' arm to catch Rosier off guard.

There were a couple prefects already in the prefect compartment, and another was coming up behind them to join the others, so the Marauders were being attacked from both sides. Remus put up a shield charm to allow the others to retreat to their chosen compartment to get some cover. James and Sirius were able to make it, but Peter did not move with the shield, as Remus also retreated, so he was hit with something from behind and fell face first onto the filthy floor.

The shouting of expletives awoke Prof. Slughorn in Compartment C from his nap. He opened the door to find a melee occurring just outside the door. Lazily, he cast _finite incantatem_.

"What is going on out here?"

"Sir," Rosier was quick to address his head of house.

"Ah yes, congratulations, Rosier. Perhaps you'll have a moment later to stop by my compartment for some tea?"

"I'd be delighted, sir."

"Oi!" Sirius interjected.

"Sir," Fortescue started to get Prof. Slughorn's attention back to the matter at hand, "these four Gryffindors attacked us after I verbally chastised them for repeatedly attacking a younger student."

"What student?" Sirius bluffed.

"Oh dear," Prof. Slughorn replied to Fortescue, not least bit interested in what Sirius Black had to say in his defense. "This is very sad. Four Gryffindors on probation while they have a criminal matter being investigated by aurors, and I stumble into them attacking more students."

"We're not criminals," James said.

"Probation? I'd like to see them try," Sirius challenged at the same time that Prongs was denying they anything but model wizarding citizens.

"I suggest the four of you get in that compartment, and I will seal it for the entire trip."

"What about the trolley?" three of them moaned aloud.

"My mind is firmly set, gentlemen," Horace replied. He already heard from Minerva about the brutish way they treated the young ladies whom they lured to their den of filth under the pretense of a summer holiday. And Miss Evans … if he had been given some notice or time, he could have found her someone better suited than Severus Snape. Whatever caused Minerva agree to that fiasco? The moody boy should be thanking the powers that be every waking moment for the hand Fate had dealt him. Evans was much too good for the likes of Snape.

The Marauders railed against the injustice of being incarcerated for the entire journey with nothing to eat or drink, and then this car of the train became blissfully quiet as Prof. Slughorn finished casting spells on their door, compartment window and the frames holding them.

Sirius flopped down on a seat and muttered, "Eh, we'll let them cool down then we'll make out escape."

"Escape? We're in trouble enough as it is," Remus recalled.

"If he did not want us getting out, he should have warded these walls," Sirius replied with a grin as he patted the bit of wall above his seat.

"That goes into the next compartment."

"So?"

"Prof. Slughorn said ..."

James wailed, "What about the flowers?"

"I think you're the one under a dark compulsion, mate," Sirius said with a sneer on his face. "Give it a rest already."

"I could give them to her at the feast, but she'll think I avoided her on the train ..."

"She'll walk by here," Peter pointed out. There was a prefect heading to the front, passing them at that moment.

"Genius!" Sirius exclaimed and got up. He positioned his bottom facing the door and unhitched his trousers.

"Let me get a bottle or something," Remus warned.

"No, you nit. See!"

Sirius dropped the back of his trousers so he was mooning whoever passed.

"Prof. Slughorn is not going to like that."

"Pity our door's not lined up opposite his," Sirius agreed, even though that is not what Remus meant. "I could flash all the pinheads he invites to tea."

Peter said, "Oooh, I'll be your lookout, Padfoot."

Eagerly, Peter waited with his face against the interior glass. He got his chance in a couple minutes and announced, "The door's opening … it's opening … it's open … it's … it's … MacDonald. Get her."

Sirius was delighted to drop his trousers. MacDonald was as big a nag as Evans. She never shut up.

MacDonald had accepted the prefect badge from Prof. McGonagall with reluctance since she was friends with Lily Evans. She had gotten a letter from Lily that she would not be on the train, so would have to wait till the feast in order to find out what was going on … a naked bottom, swaying from side to side. If Potter and Pettigrew were sitting in their seats, grinning like a couple of chimps, then it was Black's bum. Lupin was looking out the other window, pretending not to be there. Typical. Oh now what? Potter was going to make faces at her? She stomped towards the front compartment thinking about how those four had not grown up in the slightest.

James exclaimed, "Did you see that?"

"Yeah, I think she liked what she saw, Padfoot," Peter suggested.

"They all do," Sirius boasted as he pulled his trousers back up. "Let me know when someone else is coming."

"No, she had on a prefect badge."

"So?"

"Isn't Evans our prefect?" Remus asked.

"Yeah, so why's MacDonald taking her place?"

Sarcastically Sirius suggested, "Maybe you inspired Evans to give up school so she can start training to play for England next summer."

"I'm trying to make intelligent conversation here," James chided.

"If it's about Evans, it's not," Sirius replied snottily. "I'm sick of hearing about her. She's vindictive, in case you've forgotten. We may have outwitted her little trick of sending aurors to our houses with false reports of dark ..."

"Sirius, that was a dark potion," Remus reminded him.

"Hardly. She's just got her knickers in a bunch because you got one over on her, Prongs."

"Yeah," Peter agreed. Evans ruined it for all of them because they couldn't chance using that potion again.

"We are still in trouble," Remus stated, trying to bring this conversation around to what they were doing about that.

"It's only a bunch of sour witches."

"Yeah, because they can't have us full-time," Peter agreed.

"From what my parents found out, they have some sort of proof from St. Mungo's that they all drank this potion."

"They can't prove we gave it to them."

James nodded. He hadn't even known there was a potion. His parents were of the opinion that one of the girls brought it, so he did not bother telling them that his mates had brewed it. It was dark, and if there was one thing all the Potter family hated was the dark arts. As long as Sirius never used it again, than it was alright. He seemed to have learned something from all this, and there was no real harm done.

"I think we should behave ourselves and try to find out what's going to happen next," Remus argued.

With a dismissive shrug, Sirius asked, "What can they do? They've searched. They've probed. And they've found nothing."

"Yeah, we're right and Evans is wrong. So wrong, Prongs," Peter insisted.

"But ..." That was not what James wanted to talk about. His parents said they were handling everything so he wasn't worried about the legal aspect of their small prank. His parents knew a lot of people at the Ministry, and Dumbledore was on the Wizengamot. Dumbledore loved their jokes.

"No buts, Prongs," Sirius interrupted. "She's no good for you. Would she support your dream to be an international quidditch star?"

"Of course. Who wouldn't? That's a lot of money. Nice house. Nice clothes. A new broomstick whenever she wanted one."

The other three laughed. A new broomstick whenever Evans wanted one. Prongs was barking mad.

Sirius finished wiping a tear from his eye, and dug out the snacks the Potter house elves had made.

"Make 'em last. Remember, no trolley."

James set up the portable, folding picnic table in the middle so Sirius could guide the platter of sandwiches, containers of pumpkin juice, and the ham on top of it.

Spying what else was in the basket, Peter asked, "Is that a chocolate cake?"

"Yeah, and there's pudding, trifle, fruit and whatever else," Sirius replied. Since James was busy in his bedroom prancing around in front of his mirror playing with his flowers, he had dealt with making sure they had something to nibble on.

"There's fruit here, Padfoot," Remus pointed out. There was a platter of cubed cheeses, crackers and thinly sliced grapes and pitted cherries, along with wedges of apple, pear, nectarine, honeydew, cantaloupe, and plum.

"No, no, there's blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and cream."

James frowned. He had a lot of fun with Lily, strawberries and cream. Why was everything going so wrong for him today? True, he could have written. True, he could have sent flowers. But that just wasn't who he was. Why were his mates and parents so against her? She was slipped a potion. True, she overreacted by contacting the aurors, but once James got a chance to explain everything to her, they'd have a big laugh and everything would be fine.

Unlike the werewolf within him, Remus cut his sandwich up. The thing was almost six inches high with only elven magic keeping all the filling between the halves of the crusty roll. The others did not bother with utensils and did their individual best to open their mouths wide enough to cram bits in.

Rosier had stepped out of the front compartment to see if the Marauders were still mooning people, and decided their pigout was just as grotesque so darkened their windows so no one else would have to be subjected to the sight of their arses or their faces.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

**Chapter 7**

Remus' concern over their current situation, other than food and drink, was not addressed.

Sirius' continual flipping of a galleon and calling it 'heads' and keeping count, now up to 157, had grown tired long ago for Remus, but seemingly Peter was still entertained by it.

James was in his own world, muttering to himself, fixed his hair while holding a hand held mirror, after he was not satisfied with the reflection in the train window, kept checking on that bouquet of flowers in his trunk, and rhetorically questioned them as to whether he should take the flowers to the feast, or prolong Evans' wait by giving them to her in the common room later. Since he was not really asking for their opinion, the continued responses of 'never' were ignored.

Remus felt giving Evans flowers without any discussion as to how she felt regarding the seaside holiday, when she had reported them to the Ministry, would be asking for more trouble. Evans was in seventh year now too so was no pushover. James' cheeky grin and persistence had never worked on her before. She also had quite a temper.

Nonetheless, Remus would stick by Prongs and pick up any body parts that got hexed off to get all of him up to Madam Pomfrey so he could get sorted. If James persisted in his pursuit of Evans, Remus might have to do that a number of times, if he could not get a shield charm up fast enough.

Prof. Slughorn released the wards on the compartment with a warning, "No funny business in the carriages, boys."

James was not paying him any attention. His face was pressed to the window, staring out at the platform. He mused, "Do you think I can catch Evans before she gets into a carriage? Maybe we can ride up together."

"Oh yeah," Sirius agreeably commented. "Two people board, only one makes it to the gates. Great idea, Prongs … and I bet you're the one that ain't going to make it."

"Evans fancies me."

Both Sirius and Peter sneered, while Remus' face showed concern over James' delusion.

In the carriage, Sirius flipped his coin again and enthusiastically announced, "Heads. Oh, what's that now?"

Peter cheerily responded, "187!"

James was muttering to himself, trying out some poetry and tilting his flowers about. He waved them into Sirius' next toss, and got an "Oi!" in response, besides Sirius transfiguring a nest of earwigs into Prongs' bouquet.

In the dark carriage, no one noticed the extra passengers.

When they arrived at the castle, Prof. Flitwick called them over and told them, "You four are on strict probation. No talking, hand gestures or casting spells at your victims."

"What victims?" Sirius asked with a nonchalant shrug. No one he shagged ever complained till he told them he was tired of them.

"Don't be obtuse. There will be severe repercussions, and your parents have already been warned, when they petitioned to allow you to remain in school till the Ministry has a trial or pronounces its findings."

Filius already heard from Minerva about Potter's parents. None of the ladies were the type that he would consider as loose girls, and the terrible thing they did to Miss Evans was beyond belief.

As the Charms professor left, James scoffed, "What does he know?"

"Yeah," agreed Peter. "He's probably never even gotten any tail."

"I think we should listen to him," Remus asserted.

Sirius laughed, "Yeah, don't talk to Evans. She must have gotten her story to someone here so no one's going to listen to us."

"Probably another woman," Peter suggested.

"I'm still giving her these flowers," James determinedly stated.

"The Marauders do not apologize," Peter reminded him.

"It's not an apology," James refuted.

"I think you should hand them to MacDonald in front of Evans," Sirius suggested.

"I think you should banish them for now, Prongs," was Remus' idea.

"No, gentlemen, my mind is made up."

So with a plan in his head, James Potter led his friends into the Great Hall and charted their course to the Gryffindor table. With their delay in getting off the train, Prof. Flitwick and their brief discussion, they were the last four to arrive.

Having spotted the delightfully bright hair of his intended, James continued on his way, barely waving his hand in response to the greetings from his fellow Gryffindors.

James had not been paying the Head Table much attention, but he could have sworn Dumbledore had been seated in the center, rather than standing over here, to shift himself into his path.

"Excuse me," James said.

"Flowers? For me?" Albus asked.

"No, they're for Evans."

"I'm afraid that would be quite inappropriate, Mr. Potter."

Albus leaned forward to study the moving black speck on a white lily. A shiny, black carapace almost an inch long with a pair on pincers twitching on one end, and that was not the only passenger. The bouquet was infested with earwigs.

"She's my ..."

"I realize that your high spirits get the best of you, Mr. Potter, but there will be no pranking," Albus said in a stern tone as he made the flowers and its insect cargo disappear.

"What prank? Evans is my girlfriend."

By this time, the confrontation between the headmaster and the Marauders was the only sound in the room, with anyone not catching what was said, supplied with a whispered recap within moments.

"She is no one's girlfriend. Miss Evans is no longer Miss Evans since she is now a married woman. You are not to start any rumors or gossip regarding the good lady's character or hint at any improprieties. Am I making myself clear?"

"What do you mean 'married'?"

"As I told your parents, Miss Evans is married. Any plots to ruin her have been averted. In my humble opinion, you are a cad of the lowest order, Potter."

"You told my parents that she got married? Why would you do that?"

"They were saying the most unkind things about the young lady, undoubtedly based on whatever fiction you supplied them."

"So she's not married?"

"Potter, your pretense at being as dense as a brick is tiresome. Along with refusing to cooperate with the Ministry or St. Mungo's. Miss Evans is now Mrs. Lily Snape. You are to leave her in peace, or you will feel my displeasure. I have no patience with people of your ilk. You will find that besides Mr. Snape and myself, she has many champions, in addition to being one of the finest examples of Gryffindors that I have met. Consider this scheme of yours to be a dismal failure, and please feel free to fear the punishment that is still to come."

James had been struck speechless by Dumbledore's crazy assertion that Evans had married Snape. That was the stupidest thing ever. Who would believe something like that? Evans was beautiful and intelligent, and had nothing in common with that greasy git.

"You're mental," Sirius commented. It covered so much of what Dumbledore said. He couldn't insult Prongs and his parents or threaten any of them. To further illustrate how delusional the old coot was, that bit about Evans and Snape proved it beyond a doubt.

Remus was wondering if he would get a chance to explain himself before he was expelled, jailed or whatever else was in store for them. True, he was there, he knew that something was going on, but was not fully aware of everything that was going on in the house. He would not tell or point fingers, however, this bit of a holiday was turning into a beast with a life of its own.

Peter was thinking along similar lines, but more in order to claim he was simply an innocent bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had no idea what was going on, and was truly sorry for anything that occurred. Just like he told the aurors.

"In the interest of keeping things civil, I am assigning the four of you to sit on the far end of the table," Albus indicated where he meant by pointing, "every meal. You are to enter and exit from that door only. Even if that door and table are ablaze, you are not to be anywhere else in the Great Hall but on a direct course between them.

"Furthermore, you are only allowed out of Gryffindor Tower for classes and meals. The staff will become familiar with your schedules."

"I got practice," James protested.

"Ah yes, about that … you see, your persistence will now pay off, Potter. You were warned, and you still wished to fling bugs on a classmate. Therefore, there will be no more quidditch for you."

In addition to Sirius and James, a lot of Gryffindors protested the ban of their captain.

Albus held up his hands, waited for quiet, and announced, "The choice was entirely Mr. Potter's. He felt he'd rather continue to be the sorriest excuse for a Gryffindor I have ever had the misfortune to meet, rather than earn points for your house. In his six years at Hogwarts, Potter's net loss to your house has been 826 points. Black has lost 874, Pettigrew 324, and Lupin 157."

"But I got to play quidditch," James exclaimed.

Sirius was confident James would get back on the team before the first game. The Gryffindors would back them on that. These point totals were something that Dumbledore made up on the spot. So what if they lost a few points here and there? It was about having fun and doing things their way.

Fearing what would happen to them in Gryffindor, Peter attempting to redirect the blame to the usual target and blurted out, "What about Snape?"

"True, Mr. Snape would make a better Gryffindor than any of you four, but being a Slytherin is not a bad thing either. A Slytherin, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff can also be brave, honorable and make sacrifices. They may not do it with the panache or fanfare that a Gryffindor would, but it is the results that count."

Prof. McGonagall had entered with the first years behind her, and had stopped in the middle aisle when she reached the spot opposite him, "Headmaster, do not try to intimidate any of these new students into choosing another house with those four." Turning to the eleven year olds behind her, she stated, "You will be sorted into the house that leans towards your individual strengths. Sometimes, there are individuals who apparently have no good points, such as this lot standing with the headmaster, and they are also sorted. Please do not hold that against the rest of Gryffindor. They are a brave, hard-working house that will overcome this burden, as they do with all other difficulties.

"The Sorting Hat is wise enough to see that you have the seed within you of being a fine example of either of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin. Since it is only a seed, it grows over time and will flourish, or you can always follow these fellows' example and waste the opportunity, spurning your house which acts as your family here at Hogwarts to be followed up with a confrontation with the headmaster at the Welcoming Feast and an evening in your head of house's office to outline strict punishments for being an undisciplined pack of baboons."

"Oh my," Albus commented in reply, then added, "by the way, Minerva, you'll need a new quidditch captain." The badge left the James' robes and floated towards Prof. McGonagall. "Potter chose to be a unprincipled scoundrel, rather than representing your house."

"I expected it, even after his parents fought so hard with us to keep him on the team," she commented as she caught the badge. "I've already made alternate plans, Albus, so it's no loss."

James was stunned. McGonagall had already planned to chuck him off the team? How could she do that when they needed him? She had to be bluffing. There's no way she'd let Gryffindor play a game without him.

"Take a seat, show's over," Albus commented, making a shooing motion with his hands.

"Wait a minute," Sirius protested.

"Your antics have taken up enough of my time. Further protest will land you outside the gates, on the road leading to Hogsmeade."

Grumbling among themselves, the Marauders went and sat down at the far end of the table, as they were told. They'd all regret it when the truth came out. In fact, James planned to write his parents tonight.

Lily had wanted to tell her friends in her own way. They had already noticed the rings on that particular finger when Potter decided that any instructions from the Ministry or Hogwarts were beneath him, and decided to get into a loud discussion with Prof. Dumbledore. She would have hexed him where he stood, but unlike the Marauders, she wanted no witnesses.

They were polite enough to wait until other conversations started to hiss Snape's name at her.

She admitted it was true, but did not want to discuss all the details out in the open, or perhaps not discuss any detail at all. Lily briefly told them that she did not want to answer a lot of questions, but would say it was sudden, a result of a terrible prank played by the Marauders on a number of women, and that she had no reason to be unhappy with her decision. They were not satisfied with those answers, but Lily did not want to confess her shame.

At the Slytherin table, things were not directly said, but they knew enough to be careful about what they said about Evans to Snape. Those that were closest in age and skill needed time to consider the advantages and disadvantages. The most obvious problems with Snape was he was not a pureblood, good-looking or charming. Hence, marrying a decent-looking muggleborn did not lower his status among them, yet showed he was not interested in improving himself. They thought he was interested in something more after he graduated from Hogwarts.

Of course, some of the fellows got the meaning immediately when Severus replied to some snide comment of Avery's, "You lack the charms that she possesses, you dolt."

AN: The coin tossing is from _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead_. I watched the version with Gary Oldman tossing the coin.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

**Chapter 8**

Severus waited at the Slytherin table while everyone left. Lily had not said where they were to meet, and after that fiasco, she might decide to never see him again.

It was not his fault that Potter wanted to put on an embarrassing exhibition for everyone to watch. It had helped Severus in a way, but even the most vindictive Slytherin found it going a bit far to marry Evans in order to get one over on Potter.

He supposed Lily meant to walk with him since she did cross the Great Hall in order to march by him with her hands clenched into fists and talking to herself. He followed and listened to her recap everything Potter had done in the Great Hall and other things he had done at Hogwarts. She was not so blinded by rage that she blurted out for anyone to hear what Potter had done to her over the summer.

It was not till they were back in their apartment and Lily circled it a few times that she finally addressed him directly.

"Could you make some tea, Severus?"

"Alright," he agreed and got to work on that while Lily rearranged her belongings while muttering to herself.

He was probably laying out the items incorrectly, but did remember to put milk in a tiny pitcher and the little tongs for the sugar cubes. Lily did not take lemon in her tea.

Severus was nervous. Tea at the Evans was very polite and precise. Should there be something to eat with tea after dinner too? He threw some of the biscuits on a plate, than took some time to fan them out along the edge, and put that in the middle with the milk and sugar. He stepped back to take stock. Two cups, two saucers, two spoons, two napkins. He looked in the cabinet for any reminder of what else could be missing from the table.

Lily did not notice anything amiss till she tasted the tea.

"I might have been too caught up with what I was doing, Sev. Did this brew for five minutes?"

"I think so."

"Hm. Uh, one tablespoon per cup of water?"

"Tablespoon of what?"

"Tea."

"That much? It'll turn brown with less."

"While Hogwarts is paying for it, let's live it up and use the whole tablespoon per cup."

"Alright. Just so you know, we save it at home for more pots so don't get caught throwing it out."

"Save it?"

"Yes, tea can be reused for multiple pots."

To Lily, it sounded like she would not be enjoying a good cup of tea at the Snapes.

She changed the subject, "So uh … what do you have in mind?"

"In mind for what?"

Thinking it might seem suspicious if four people went missing between now and tomorrow morning, Lily simply suggested, "Tonight."

"I'm not particularly tired, but if you are going to sleep, I can lay down. I don't have anything new to read yet."

Read. That was not anything new. Sev told her numerous times that he did not sleep all night because he liked reading. Lily just didn't expect him to talk about reading their first night together as a married couple.

"So you're interested in taking things slow then?"

"Slow?" Severus repeated.

"I mean we both know that we've … you know … multiple times, and we're married."

"That was different. I know you married me to stay in school, not for me to take liberties with you, Lily."

"We're still married," Lily responded. Why would Severus marry her so she could still go to school?

"Yes."

"It's for the rest of our lives, Sev."

He nodded his understanding.

"So you don't …?" Lily let her question hang, unsure of what Severus wanted or did not want.

"I don't want us to fight, Lily. I don't want to live without you talking to me for over a year again."

Severus had already told her this, that afternoon and evening by the river.

"You didn't like uh … what we did?"

He turned his gaze towards the tabletop, but Lily could see the flush of color to his face. Severus confessed, "It was incredible. I've never felt anything like that before."

His reaction sort of confirmed for Lily what she thought she saw that day. Severus had been scared. She reassured him, "I thought you were brilliant too, Sev."

Severus was not sure if Lily meant that or not. The potion could have altered her perception of what occurred. Yes, that was it. It would have wanted her to enjoy and continue having sex.

Lily waited for Sev to reply, then suggested, "I guess I'll take a bath. Did you want to go first or after me?"

"I took a bath this morning," Severus muttered at the table. "But I can take another one if you want me to."

"You go do what you need to do first," Lily replied carefully, afraid of insulting Severus, "and then I can take all the time I want in there."

"Did you want me to clear this up first?"

"I'll get it, Sev. Thank you for making the tea."

Lily did not mind cleaning up. She needed to think, without talking to herself aloud, as she had over Potter. Sev had been her best friend for a long time so he wasn't necessarily a stranger, just strange. Why had she thought marrying him would make things all right? Well, they weren't all right, since she was pregnant with twins, but being married to Sev only seemed to solve the dilemma regarding attending Hogwarts while giving her the problem of living with him. For now, Sev seemed willing to defer to Lily's wishes, but that would change if she got too pushy or opinionated.

Severus emerged from the loo too quickly for Lily to have decided anything, other than she needed to think before she spoke. Between his parents and her, she believed Sev was thoroughly confused as to what was going on. At least Severus was agreeable to concentrating on schoolwork.

She noticed Severus hovering by the bathroom door when he came out.

"Did you forget something at home, Sev?"

"No," he replied half to himself as he went to put his things away in his bureau. His mother yelled so many contradictory things at him this morning, he was not sure what he had been doing wrong.

"All right then. I may be a while," Lily added, in case Sev thought she'd be as quick as him.

Lily actually spent a lot of time dawdling in the lavatory. She had even brought three different types of pajamas in with her. Her mum had given her a couple new ones, and now that she had the baby doll set on, it looked all wrong in the mirror. It was pretty, but the flimsy fabric was a bit much to spring on Sev, at least until she knew what he wanted to do. Perhaps he was angry over the whole thing and never wanted to touch her again. Not sure if that was the case, Lily put on the ankle-length summer weight cotton, flowered nightgown.

She emerged to find that most of the room was in darkness. The candles next to the bed were lit, along with the one on her dresser. Lily put her things away quietly, in case Severus had gone to sleep, then turned to realize the bed was still made up.

"Sev?" she whispered loudly.

"Yes?" he answered.

"Where are you?"

"On the sofa."

"Aren't you going to lie down?"

"I am."

"I meant in bed."

"You can have it."

Lily's lips twisted to the side in frustration as she processed that tidbit, then she firmly responded, "We're both going to sleep over here, Sev."

"Won't you need more room soon?"

"Not that much, Sev. Get over here."

Lily looked at Sev as he moved into the light. He had been wearing clothes when he came out of the loo, rather than pajamas. Sev had changed into his clothes that he wore at home, rather than leaving his uniform on.

Before she blurted out a request for him to change, Lily recalled she had not seen any pajamas in Sev's drawers. If he normally slept in his underwear or less, she did not know, and at the moment thought she better not order him to strip.

"So is the side next to your things all right with you, Sev?"

He nodded.

"Well, I guess I'll get the lights so you can get ready for bed. Nox."

Lily was slipping under the covers when she felt the mattress respond to weight on the other side. She doubted Sev undressed since she had not heard anything. It was all right if he wanted to keep his clothes on tonight. They needed time to get used to being around each other again.

As the silence lengthened, Lily slid her hand tentatively towards Sev to touch him, and maybe hold his hand. This did not have to be some sort of punishment for him. She reached an obstruction. He was not between the sheets, like her.

"Did you want me to move over?" she heard him whisper.

"No, I wanted to hold your hand. Why aren't you beneath the covers?"

"I didn't feel like it."

Lily found his arm and shifted to get her hand comfortably in his. He let their fingers comfortably weave together. At least, he was not being stubborn about this.

She lay still listening to Severus slowly breathe. At least he admitted he enjoyed what they did, so it wasn't as bad as all that. If nothing else, they had their joint hatred of James Potter.

_** Dumbledore's a Dunce ** Dumbledore's a Dunce ** Dumbledore's a Dunce ** Dumbledore's a Dunce ** Dumbledore's a Dunce ** Dumbledore's a Dunce ** Dumbledore's a Dunce ** _

Sirius continued his fuming as they headed up to Gryffindor tower. "Dumbledore's gone too far this time. He can't expel us. In fact, you could even say we're actually the victims of this whole farce."

Remus had been quietly keeping his own council through dinner, but this was going too far. "Victims? How do you see us as victims, Padfoot?"

"Obviously this whole display was planned in advance to make us look stupid."

"Yeah," Peter chimed in, "he was waiting for Prongs or any of us to make a move."

"We were told not to speak to any of them."

"It's just talking," James exclaimed. "What I don't get is why he took Snape's side. Snape's always wrong. He's a sneaky bastard, and now he's ruined Evans' life."

"Cut it out about Evans," Sirius growled. "She made her choice."

"No, she didn't. I bet he used some sort of love potion on her. There's no way she'd even touch that greasy git. Just wait, when we see her in Gryffindor, she'll be all befuddled. If she starts saying things about how nice Snape is in any way, then everyone will know."

"It was our potion," Remus declared. "She must have still been under its effects when she went home. Doesn't she live close to Snape?"

Sirius made a face and disgustedly replied, "What kind of slimeball takes advantage of a girl in that state?"

"Us," Remus answered.

"No," James denied. "Evans fancies me. It has to be something he did to her. You know how wonderful and kind Evans is, even to you, Moony ..." James was interrupted by Peter's giggle, so he added, "and you too, Wormtail. He probably started crying about something and she couldn't help trying to comfort him, and that's when the slimy git got her."

"Maybe she deserves it then," Sirius suggested. "If she's that gullible."

"Yeah," Peter agreed, "she came when you wrote her that letter about the head boy and head girl spending time together, Prongs."

"Hey, who's friend are you? This is not about what I did. I've paid for that, when Evans sent aurors to our houses. It's what Snape has done, and how he tricked Dumbledore. We have to expose him."

"Not again," Peter said while making a face. "It was so gross."

"Yeah, even scared and upside down, Snivellus was hung like a muggle," Sirius complained, while feeling his pudding threatening to come back up.

"Yeah, like an animal," Peter agreed.

Horrible realization crept into James' mind regarding Snape doing things to his beautiful and innocent Lily. Was it even physically possible? From what he saw of Snape, he was grotesque. Doubtless, Snape would try, and he wouldn't give a damn how much it hurt her. James just had to guard Lily to keep her and Snape apart, even if he had to sleep inside the portrait hole to keep her from sneaking out.

In the meantime, he'd have to work on figuring out what Snape gave Lily to get her to do all this and then get an antidote into her. Then they could get Snape sent to Azkaban where he belonged. Maybe it would be so bad, he'd get sentenced to getting kissed by a dementor.

When James found out that Lily no longer was staying in Gryffindor tower, but was somewhere with Snape, he no longer cared about trials, Azkaban and dementors. He'd kill that slimy bastard himself.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Harry Potter. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Mischief Managed Chapter 9 

Lily woke to some noise. Oh, Sev was snoring. She looked at the time. Just past four in the morning. No, too early. She pushed Sev to get him to roll over and be quiet.

After a sharp indrawn breath, Sev muttered, "What?"

"You were snoring."

"Something wrong with your wand?" he replied in a sarcastic low voice. How could Lily expect him to lie next to her in bed and not eventually fall asleep after hours of lying dully in the dark listening to her breathe?

"Don't start, Sev."

"I can sleep on the other side of the room," Severus suggested again.

"No, you can't."

"I need some sleep."

It was fine if Lily wanted the closet, more drawers and to keep her own chemist's shoppe in the loo, but although he needed little sleep, Severus needed some.

"Can I cast a silencing-?"

"On yourself, not me. I want to be able to hear anything."

"But Sev-"

"I'll sleep over on the other side of the room."

Lily was protesting, "No, you -" when she felt the movement as Sev got up. "Get back in bed."

"I need some sleep. When I sleep, I make noise. I'm not denying it."

"But we're married."

From across the room, Severus answered, "What does that have to do with me sleeping?"

"You're supposed to sleep next to me."

"Not if you're jabbing me."

"I thought you'd roll over and stop, not wake up."

When Severus did not answer how unlikely it was that Lily would stop abusing him till he was silent, she said, "Well?"

"Good night."

Some marriage this was, Lily thought to herself and with a huff, pulled the covers up and rolled into the middle of the bed. What Severus said about not wanting to argue was certainly untrue.

Lily laid awake in bed, listening for anything for long moments. Severus must still be awake since he was not snoring. Unless he did not snore all the time. If he did snore all the time, wouldn't he have woken Lily earlier in the night?

"Severus?"

"Yes?"

"Please come back to bed. I'm sorry."

Severus knew better than to repeat Lily's historic declaration back to her to get clarification.

"And get under the covers this time, Sev," Lily added when she felt movement in the dark.

"Lily-"

"I said I'm sorry, Sev. I don't want us to argue either. I'll get used to you snoring."

"I do not do it intentionally."

"I know," Lily responded, rolling over to get closer to Severus.

Severus tried to remain still as Lily pressed up against him. When her hands got under the front of his jumper, he asked, "What are you doing?"

"We're supposed to make up, Sev, so we don't stay angry with each other."

"One time is not worth getting angry over."

"Hmm," she agreed, leaning against the full length of his body and using her lips to find his.

"Maybe we should get more sleep."

"I'm awake now and not the least bit tired."

Severus was tired, yet he doubted Lily would let him sleep now. He suggested, "I think you should stop till I'm in a better mood."

"This is supposed to get you in a better mood."

"It's not," Severus deadpanned.

"You're angry with me?"

"Tomorrow, or later today, we are going to be in the halls. Dumbledore won't be watching out for us. I need my rest to remain sharp to protect us."

"You-" Lily started, then stopped. She wanted to argue Sev's statement on multiple levels. Accusing him of being paranoid wasn't going to work. It was likely that something would be cast at them. She saw the way the Marauders swanned into the Great Hall tonight ready to make a scene. If Dumbledore did threaten them before, it was obvious they would only back down after the headmaster put himself in their path to repeat his warnings. She frowned in the dark. Was there ever going to be any punishment for them, other than harsh words? Oh yeah, Potter was off the quidditch team. Whoop dee do. She wanted them to cast something at her. Mark a rude gesture, smirk in her direction, quirk an eyebrow, and then she'd flatten all four of them so bad that Madame Pomfrey would have to send them to St. Mungo's for a specialist to fix.

Sev asked, "What?" when Lily stopped speaking.

"-won't be alone," Lily concluded. "We'll protect each other. Get some rest. We'll show them how dangerous it is to mess with us."

***** I solemnly swear this map is bloody broken! *****

"Why aren't they on the bloody map?" Prongs asked for the twentieth time, giving the parchment a poke with his wand.

Remus reminded him again, "We never found the staff quarters, only their offices. They disappear."

"They're not bloody staff. They're students."

"Shut up!" Sirius snapped. He was trying to dictate a letter to Wormtail, and they were ruining his concentration. "Read that back to me."

Peter cleared his throat, and began, "Dear Sir, Since you are a former student of Hogwarts, and a proud member of Gryffindor house, I am writing to you on behalf of all the current students of your house, or in other words your family, to inform you that the honor of our house and Godric Gryffindor himself -"

James wailed, "What are we going to do? We need to save Evans!" He resumed throwing items from his trunk and held up his invisibility cloak.

"What are you going to do with that?" Sirius asked.

"Wait by the kitchens for them," James answered. "I'm off."

"What makes you think they're going to the kitchens?" Remus said, trying to understand James's plan enough so he could try to talk him out of it.

"Where else would they go after Dumbledore just throws them carte blanche?"

"What's that?" Peter asked.

Sirius scoffed, "Snape'll be too knackered to nip down for a snack after pounding that ginger pussy for hours."

Prongs roared and lunged at Sirius, hands outstretched to grab him by the neck.

Peter squealed and got out of the way, knocking over ink and quills on Sirius's desk in his haste to protect himself.

Getting his fingers under James's wasn't easy for Remus, but he did get them off one at a time as Sirius jabbed his best friend with some rib and kidney shots to help.


End file.
